AIU Gives AFN Jan 16 Deadline to Defend 17 Athletes With Multiple Birthdates
The Athletics Integrity Unit has given Nigeria until 16 January 2026 to explain why 16 of the 17 athletes under scrutiny carried multiple dates of birth into the 2025 African u18 and u20 Championships in Abeokuta, Nigeria.
The demand is clear: the Athletics Federation of Nigeria must produce verifiable documents such as birth certificates, passports, school records, or medical files to prove the athletes’ true ages.
Anything less will trigger a formal investigation into age manipulation, a violation of the Integrity Code of Conduct and World Athletics Technical Rules.
This is the second time in less than two years that Nigeria has been dragged into such a scandal under the presidency of Tonobok Okowa.
The federation’s credibility is crumbling, with Secretary General Israel Inwang failing to provide leadership and Technical Director Gabriel Okon accused of focusing more on foreign trips than enforcing compliance.
The first scandal erupted under customs officer Samuel Onikeku as technical director, and now history repeats itself under Okon, exposing a culture of negligence at the top of Nigerian athletics.
The AIU’s annex reveals shocking discrepancies. Juliana Ademola Temitope was listed as born in 2005 in earlier competitions but 2006 at the African Juniors.
Adeola Adenji Muideen appeared with a 2004 birthdate in Lagos but astonishingly 2009 elsewhere. Esther Aiffigbo competed in 2025 as a 2006-born athlete, yet her World Athletics profile shows 2002.
Ibrahim Ajibare has no fewer than four different dates of birth, ranging from 2002 to 2009. Emmanuel Blessing was entered as 2007 at the Juniors but 2002 at the Asaba Trials.
These, definitely, are not clerical errors but deliberate manipulations designed to sneak overage athletes into junior competitions.
The AIU has made clear that such practices undermine the honesty standard of athletics and cast doubt on Nigeria’s integrity in global sport.
Unless the federation produces credible, contemporaneous documents by the January deadline, the country faces another round of investigations that will tarnish its athletes and reputation.
