AIU Queries AFN Over Discrepancies in Ages of Four Nigerian Athletes 

Duro Ikhazuagbe 

Age cheating many perceive as problem in football alone has surfaced in Nigeria’s track & field with the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), querying the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to explain how four junior athletes have different ages in their documents with the world body.

The four junior athletes (name withheld) are due to compete for Nigeria at the World Under-20 Championships in Lima, Peru in August.

In the letter (sighted by THISDAY) addressed to the leadership of the AFN and signed by Head of the Athletics Integrity Unit, Brett Clothier, the AIU said it has “identified discrepancies regarding the date of birth (DOB) for at least 4 Nigerian athletes,” noting “each of these athletes has at least two, and sometimes three or more, different DOBs which have been used to enter competitions at different times.”

It further said that  it ‘is not aware of any reason why these athletes appear to have completely different, multiple DOBs. It is also not clear whether the identification documents submitted by the athletes (such as passports) are true or whether they have been forged or falsified.”

The letter dated June 7, 2024 and addressed to Tonobok Ojuru Okowa and Rita Moshindi, President and Secretary General, respectively, of the AFN, gave the Nigerian track & field body  until last  Friday June 21, 2024 to respond to the query.

Amongst documents demanded from the AFN include; the four athletes current passport, all previous passports, birth certificate, national ID card, documents submitted in support of passport applications, medical records, including hospitalization records, dental records, vaccination records as well as education records including matriculation records, school end-of-term/year reports ad school examination results among others.

The AFN was also expected to have furnished the AIU with any correspondence between the athlete and the federation regarding their date of birth.

Of the four athletes, one of them is male and was a double champion in the U18 category at the African U18/U20 Championships last year in Ndola, Zambia while the remaining three are females. One is  a sprinter, an hurdler and a long/triple jumper.

One of the female athletes had three different dates of birth while the male had a 2004 and a 2006 dates of birth. 

Two of the athletes had different dates of birth in the AFN entry list for two of the federation’s competitions (in 2019 and 2021) but were registered by the federation with another dates of birth for the African U18/U20 championships in 2023.

Neither Okowa nor Moshindi could be reached last night for their reactions to the AIU query to Nigeria as they are both in Douala, Cameroon for the 2026 African Senior Athletics Championships.