Okagbare faces fresh four-year ban for alleged doping violation

Blessing Okagbare

Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare, who was, at the weekend, banned for 10 years by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of World Athletics for doping offences, may be further punished by the body for more anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) following revelations in the ongoing case between the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and Eric Lira.

The latest indictment could also see a Nigerian male sprinter getting a four-year ban alongside Okagbare.

On January 12, 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York issued a press release concerning the filing of criminal charges publicly against Lira.

Those charges relate to the distribution of prohibited substances to two athletes for the purpose of cheating at the 2020 Olympic Games held in Tokyo in the summer of 2021.

The FBI complaint sets out highly incriminating text and voice messages by ‘Athlete 1, who the AIU believes is Okagbare with a contact named “Eric Lira Doctor’ in 2020 and 2021.

The messages include Okagbare asking Lira for vials or doses of EPO and hGH and querying the quantity of drugs she would need for herself and ‘Athlete 2’ (believed to be a Nigerian male sprinter).

The messages also included Okagbare sending to Lira a list of drugs that she wanted, including hGH and EPO.

On June 13, 2021, Okagbare queried in a message sent to Lira whether she was safe to take a test following a particular dosage, and because she was not sure, she ‘just let them go so it will be a missed test.’

Following this revelation, World Athletics, on January 14, 2022, sent a notice of investigation letter to Okagbare concerning the potential ADRVs of Evading sample collection (Rule 2.3) and tampering (Rule 2.5).

The notice, according to World Athletics,