Eric Lira Pleads Guilty in Okagbare Dope Scandal, Faces 10-Year Jail Term

The ‘Naturopathic’ therapist in the Blessing Okagbare dope scandal, Eric Lira, faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty on Monday to supplying performance-enhancing drugs to Olympic athletes, including the disgraced Nigerian sprinter.

 Lira who is based in El Paso, the same city Okagbare attended the University of Texas (UTEP) and rose to fame in the sprint and the long jump globally, is the first individual to be convicted under a new US law introduced in the wake of Russia’s state-backed Olympic doping scandals, the United States Department of Justice said yesterday in a statement.

The 2020 law, named after Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, enables the American authorities to prosecute individuals involved in international doping fraud conspiracies.

Lira was found to have supplied drugs to Okagbare in the build-up to the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Okagbare, who was subsequently banned from the sport for 11 years, was expelled from the Tokyo Games just before the women’s 100m semi-finals.

Lira provided banned performance-enhancing substances to Olympic athletes who wanted to corruptly gain a competitive edge,” he said.

“Such craven efforts to undermine the integrity of sport subverts the purpose of the Olympic Games – which is to showcase athletic excellence through a level playing field.

“Lira’s efforts to pervert that goal will not go unpunished.”

Athletes who obtained the drugs from Lira were not all identified but the Athletics Integrity Unit, an independent anti-doping body, said they were Okagbare and fellow-Nigerian Divine Oduduru, who is facing a potential six-year ban.

The maximum sentence for violating the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act is 10 years in prison. Lira’s sentence will be determined by a judge at a later date, the Department of Justice statement added.

US anti-doping officials welcomed Lira’s conviction, noting that it was made possible only by the recently enacted law.

“Without this law, Lira, who held himself out as a doctor to athletes, likely would have escaped consequence for his distribution of dangerous performance-enhancing drugs and his conspiracy to defraud the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games because he did not fall under any sport anti-doping rules,” said Travis Tygart, the chief executive officer of the US Anti-Doping Agency.