Big Brother Naija All-Stars winner, Odiniya Ilebaye, is facing criticism online after she posted a photo of her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) ID card on her Snapchat.” The card showed her year of birth as 2004, sparking debates about whether she was truly eligible to contest in the show at the time she went.

Ilebaye first appeared in the BBNaija Level Up season in 2022, where she was introduced on 23 July and evicted in the third week. She returned the following year for the All-Stars edition, which premiered on 23 July 2023. On 1 October 2023, she emerged as the winner of the season, walking away with the ₦120 million grand prize.

The main cause of the uproar is the fact that BBNaija requires housemates to be at least 21 years old at the time of entry. If Ilebaye was indeed born in 2004, she would have been 18 years old during her first appearance in 2022 and only 19 when she won the All-Stars edition.

While some fans are calling on MultiChoice, organisers of the show, to take legal action, others insist that she is not the first reality TV star to allegedly lie about her age.

So far, neither Ilebaye nor the organisers have issued a statement addressing the matter, but the matter continues to stir conversations online, with questions about transparency and fairness in one of Africa’s biggest reality show.