Okowa absolves AFN, blames athletes and coaches in age-cheating scandal

President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Tonobok Okowa, has absolved the federation of blame in the ongoing age-cheating controversy, insisting that athletes and their coaches are responsible for the infractions.

Speaking on the radio programme Talk Sports, monitored by our correspondent, Okowa described the behavior of athletes and their coaches as ‘worrisome.’

He said the issue ‘has nothing to do with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria but of course they are under our watch.’

According to him, athletes keep attending different competitions with their coaches, who register them with varying dates of birth.

‘You can see somebody with a date of birth that is just about 13 days different. Is that a typographical error or whatever it is?’ he asked.

Okowa explained that the federation had collated its database the last time, but later discovered that athletes had gone for other competitions using different dates of birth.

‘That is just what it is. What reason will a coach have to change the date of birth of an athlete? It is getting worrisome,’ he said.

He announced that a panel has been instituted and within two or three days it should be able to determine what happened and that the AFN will then write to the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU),

He also revealed the AFN will also engage the athletes directly to explain the discrepancies.

Okowa noted that the National Sports Commission is not happy about the development, stressing that the panel will reveal why coaches and athletes acted as they did.

Despite the controversy, the AFN president rated the federation highly, saying: ‘We have been going to competitions, we went to the World Championships.’