From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna
Following the inconclusive MatchDay 30 of the Nigeria National League Division 1 A between Ranchers Bees FC and Kwara United FC at the Kaduna Township stadium where the match was still at 2-2 before it was abandoned by Kwara United at the 75th minutes of the game, the media officer of Ranchers Bees, Vincent Akinbami has reacted to the allegation by Kwara United FC officials that their camera man, players and officials were beaten during the match.
Vincent described the allegation as untrue and cooked up stories by the Kwara United officials to have reasons for abandoning the match. He added that “act put up by the Afonja Warriors officials was childish and could pass for a home video.” Speaking further Vincent questioned “why will the fans of a team who just equalized, coming from 2-0 down beat up its opponent, seized camera from their camera man and all the fictions Kwara officials came up with.”
He added “two good goals were scored and the Kwara officials knew more goals will come, so their best option was to abandon the match claiming attacks on them.” He explained further that “Kwara United had led 2-0 from first half, we got our first goal through a header and the second one by Sunday Ibeji was a blinder from 30 yards.”
“The second goal by Ranchers Bees saw Kwara United officials sitting on the bench running into the pitch claiming they were attacked by Ranchers Bees fans. They stood on the pitch for 15minutes refusing to continue play after which the referee signal the end of the game. I have never seen anything like this before, running from an unseen enemy,” he stressed.
The media officer said it was even the Kwara Officials who had attempted to instigate the fans to fight. “At the end of the game I saw a Kwara United official throwing stone at the chairman of Ranchers Bees Abdulazeez Mohammed who remained calm, knowing that the Kwara United wanted to instigate the crowd to attack them so that they can have what to hold on to.” “Two Kwara United officials had earlier been sanction from the bench by the centre referee for insulting the fourth official it was those officials that were booed by Ranchers fans” Vincent explained.
“There was no attack on anybody before, during and after the match, as the management of Ranchers bees had provided adequate security both within and outside the stadium,” the media officer concluded.
