3 FOOTBALLERS LURED TO DEATH

Travelled to Cotonou to meet foreign agent, die in mysterious circumstance

By Alvan Ewuzie and Sunday AniThese are not the best of times for Mr. Martin Iheanacho, a native of Afugiri in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State. He was forlorn and downcast, as he cried blue murder over the gruesome killing of his son, David Nnabuihe Iheanacho, who was a rising star in the field of soccer, alongside three of his colleagues. Iheanacho alleges that his son, the only son, and three of his friends, were murdered by people, who  worked as their manager and coach. The 19-year old young man, said to be a part-time student at the Lagos State University,  and his friends met their untimely end   on July 11, 2013. Mr. Iheanacho alleged  that the  team manager, one Emeka (surname withheld by us), had a hand in the unsavoury incident, allegeing that he and the coach must have negotiated and collected money from foriegn agents, who allegedly lured the footballers to Cotonou, Benin Republic.

Iheanacho, a construction site foreman, said he found it strange that the players had to go to Benin Republic to see the agents. He said Emeka earned a living by hunting for young football talents, developing them and selling them to foreign football clubs in Europe where they play professional football.  He has a football club where he hones his players’ talents. But Emeka told Daily Sun that David and his friends drowned in a River in Cotonou when they went to see a friend.

David and his colleagues joined the club with high prospects of playing in big European clubs some day. But they never lived to actualise their dreams, as the man, who promised to make their dreams come through, allegedly cut short their lives because of money. The young men, according to Mr. Ihenacho, had been playing around African clubs before their manager, Emeka, came up with the idea of moving them to Europe for greener pasture.

Speaking about his son’s exploits in the field of soccer, he said: “He has been to Ethiopia, Congo and Senegal to play. During his last tournament in Ethiopia, he even won a medal for his performance. The medal is still with me in my house.”

Having played in Emeka’s club for some time and having been discovered to be very good, he was chosen alongside two others to be sent to Denmark to continue their football career. “So, his manager  came to me to say my son was doing very well, he would want to assist my son to get a club to play abroad. He specifically mentioned Denmark. He told me that he was one of the few chosen by a club in  Europe. He told me that they had gone to Ibadan, Ogun and Lagos to play and now the club was ready to send them to Europe,” he said.

Though Mr. Iheanacho was elated to hear that his son would be travelling to Denmark as a professional footballer, he was a bit uncomfortable when he was told him  the white men, who would take the boys to the club in Denmark would receive them in Cotonou, Benin Republic instead of here in Nigeria. He didn’t just keep quiet at this strange development, even though he never anticipated that the plan was to murder his son. He was told the men opted to meet the players in Cotonou on account of the fragile security situation in Nigeria. “But he said they would go to Cotonou to meet with the white men that had come for them. I asked him: Why Cotonou? And he told me that the white men preferred Cotonou because of the security situation in Nigeria. He said from there, they would either move straight to Denmark or they would collect their clearance to come back to Abuja to get their visa,” he explained.

When David bade goodbye to his father, as they left Lagos for Cotonou, he never knew he and his colleagues were embarking on the journey of no return. Emeka and the team coach, one Emmanuel, allegedly took the boys to Cotonou and organised the assassins, who killed them in cold blood, having collected handsome amount of foreign currencies as sign-on fees on them. It was alleged that they told the white men from Denmark that the boys were involved in an auto crash, which claimed their lives, as their vehicle plunged into a river and they were drowned. “They organised the men that killed the boys in Cotonou. And somebody, who saw them, shouted and that attracted the attention of the Beninoise Police, who quickly came and rescued the bodies otherwise; they would have dumped the bodies inside the water to buttress their claim that their vehicle plunged into a river and they all got drowned,” he said.

After the boys were killed and their death announced in Cotonou, the coach and manager came back to Nigeria and kept the ugly incident to themselves.  But the wind had blown and the fowl’s rump had been exposed; the bean was spilled.

David had earlier called his father when they were on their way to Cotonou to send him a recharge card, so that he could call back in case they would not return that day. His father had sent him a recharge card of N800 but when nobody heard anything from him after one week, his father became apprehensive and started making efforts, which eventually unravelled the dastardly act .

“I called his phone number but it was switched off. I became worried and I asked my last daughter, Nkiru, what we should do and she suggested going to Cotonou with one of her friends, who knows the route and who equally understands French language very well.

“So,  my daughter and her friend left for Cotonou and when they got there, they were lucky to have met the dead bodies in their fresh state, so she took photographs. She was told that  four assassins  attacked my son and his colleagues but unfortunately for them, while the roughnecks were carrying out their dastardly act, somebody saw them and raised the alarm but then, it was too late. My son and his colleagues had been murdered in cold blood. The coach and manager escaped before the crowd could gather but the boy, who raised the alarm had seen him. When policemen arrived, they took the bodies to a hospital in Cotonou where they were deposited in the mortuary,” he narrated.

When Mr. Iheanacho’s daughter and her friend came back with the sad news,  he was benumbed.  So, he quickly went to the Benin Republic embassy in Lagos to report the matter but he was told it was the Federal Government of Nigeria that should report to them and not him. “I then went to Alagbon to report the matter officially to the Interpol. Police said if I could get the picture  of the suspects displayed when they announced the boys’ death, it would help. So, one of my elder brothers went to Cotonou and he was able to get the picture. I have even shown the picture to the police at Alagbon and they have promised to do something about it. But the police told me to be patient because they must get signal from Abuja before they can embark on such international investigative trip,” he said.

Explaining that their action was premeditated and well planned, Mr. Iheanacho alleged that when  the suspects found out that their evil act had been exposed and that he was already in Cotonou, they arranged to take the bodies away from the hospital. They were alleged to have buried them somewhere 20 kilometres away from the main town of Cotonou. The bodies, according to the distraught father, are still where they were buried in Cotonou because there has been no move by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

When he called the Club owner on phone, he referred to  the coach. When  was contacted,  the coach pleaded with Mr. Iheanacho not to expose him.

Expressing his anger on the attitude of   the club owner he said: “Meanwhile, these suspects are here in Nigeria. They never bothered to inform us about what has befallen our children as they claimed. When I called the club owner and confronted him with the news of my son’s death, he told me that it was not his business as my son and his friends went to Cotonou on their own. I said but when you came to me to take him from my house; was that what you told me? He asked me to see the coach. So, when I first called the coach, his phone was switched off but when we tried his line again at Alagbon, he answered and warned me not expose him and since then his phone has been switched off.”

Manager reacts

When the Manager  was contacted on phone he denied the allegation. He said he didn’t take anybody to Cotonou, rather David and his friends went to the place, called Lakosa in Cotonou on their own. He said David had been going there to play for the past four years and that during their last trip; he didn’t even inform the coach.

“The truth is that I was not the person, who took them there. David has been going there for the past four years to play tournament for them. I have never been to Lakosa and I don’t even know how the place looks like. They were four but I know three of them who were our players; the fourth person, I don’t know. They didn’t even tell the coach that they were going there. How can I be the one that took them there when I am in Lagos? Is it possible?” he questioned.

Asked what killed the boys, he said: “I was not there but according to what we were told they entered a canoe that was being paddled by a young boy of 16 years old. And as the boy was paddling the canoe, something like a big fish jumped up and one of them stood up and because he was sitting at the edge of the canoe, the canoe lost balance and capsized. That is what we were told.” When asked where they were going when they boarded the canoe, he also said: “I don’t know where they were going. We were only told that they were crossing but I don’t know where they were crossing to.”

But on the allegation that he  went to the mortuary to remove the corpses and buried 20 kilometres away from the town, he said: “No, that’s not true; it is not me that went to bury them. The families were there. The other two families decided that there was no need bringing the corpses to Nigeria. It was only Olu’s family that was not there. David’s sister, Nkiru, was there. She represented her family, which is Iheanacho’s family. When the team wanted to pay condolence to David’s father, Martin, he said he didn’t want to see anybody.”

He also said he was the one who informed the families about the incident when somebody called him to inform about it. Reacting to Martin’s allegation that his son and his colleagues were murdered, he said: “If they were murdered, the other families wouldn’t have accepted to bury their children just like that. Everybody saw the corpses before they were buried; even Nkiru his daughter who represented the family was there. We couldn’t have given money to the other families to shut up.”

Coach  reacts

Also reacting to the allegation, the coach of the team where the boys played,  denied knowledge of any trip. He said he knew about what happened from the manager,  who also got a call to that effect. He was very angry that David’s father could lay such accusation on them.

Speaking bitterly about the incident, he said: “I don’t know anything about their trip to Cotonou. I am the team’s coach and they didn’t inform me. They are four  but only three are my boys, the fourth was their friend. They are: Olu, John and David; the fourth person Nnamdi was their friend. Olu even told some of his friends that he was going to see his mother in Kwara, not knowing that he and his friends had planned to travel to Cotonou. When I got the information about what happened, I was very angry because they didn’t inform me before they embarked on such journey but because they were our boys, we had to go there.”

Also speaking about the burial, he said: “Their families were there. I represented Olu’s family because I am like a father to him. His mother is a widow in far away Kwara State and his sister, who also lives in Kwara, is heavily pregnant. So, they asked me to go and represent their family at the burial. Other families were also represented. Nkiru represented Mr Martin’s family.

He also said they were not murdered, as the father alleged. He corroborated the manager’s views that they were drowned in a canoe.

Olu’s sister, Kemi reacts

When Olu’s sister, Kemi Adeoye, was contacted on phone, she narrated what she knew about his brother’s death. Although, she has resigned everything to fate, she still could not understand the whole thing, as, according to her, she was in  Kwara State and so, there was little she could do. She said: “Actually, Olufemi Adeoye is my elder brother. He actually called my mother to inform her that he would be travelling to Togo to play football match and that they would come back in two weeks time. He even promised to visit us in Kwara when he comes back. He asked my mother to send him a recharge to enable him to communicate with us when he gets there. My mother actually sent the recharge card to but when she later called to confirm whether he got the card, his number didn’t go through. From that day, we didn’t hear anything from him. We got worried to the extent that I had to go on the facebook to see if I can communicate with him but all proved abortive. It was while I was on facebook that one of his friends posted the news that he and his friends were involved in an accident and they were dead. I wanted to chat with his friend but as soon as he found out that I have not heard, he signed out. I immediately called him on phone and he told me what happened.”

On whether, she and her mother were aware of his brother’s burial in Cotonou, she said: “Yes, we are aware. When the coach called me to inform me about my brother’s death, I informed my uncle. My uncle said if actually they died inside the water, tradition demanded that they be buried beside the water and so, based on that, we asked the coach to represent us at the burial of my brother. I don’t know about the other people.”

David’s sister reacts

When David’s sister, Nkiru, was contacted on phone, she said her brother, David, informed her of their intention to travel to Cotonou for a soccer tournament on July 14. According to Nkiru, he also told her that his coach was aware of the trip.

But on her brother’s death, she said it was an unknown person, who called to inform her. “It was somebody I don’t know who called me to inform me that my brother and his colleagues were dead. The person said it was the coach and manager  that brought the news that my brother and his colleagues drowned in the water in Cotonou. This information came to me on Sunday, July 14. I quickly called the manager, who confirmed the incident but assured me that they were responding to treatment in hospital there. So, the next day, Monday, July 15, I met one of my friends, who accompanied me to Cotonou,” she said.

“When we got there,” she continued, “The people there told us that they drowned inside the water but from what I saw of their bodies, I didn’t believe them. One of them had a deep cut at the back of his head; the other one had bruises on his hands as if it was a cutlass-inflicted injury and my brother also had deep cuts on both sides of his face. Their bodies were not swollen and the colour of their skin did not change and they all had swollen eyes. So, I became suspicious of the cause of their death. When I asked them how they sustained all those injuries if actually they were drowned in the water, they told me that it was when they were searching for their bodies.”

On whether, she witnessed their burial in Cotonou and why the decision to bury them there, she said: “I was there when they were buried. They were buried there because according to the club owner, the bodies had been handed over to the government of Benin Republic because we didn’t arrive there on time and the government had directed that since they were drowned in the water, they should be buried by the river side there. That was what he told me as reason for burying them there. I was also informed when I got there that the coach and manager had earlier visited the place before my friend and I arrived but when we asked them, they said they never went there. So, I am not convinced that my brother and his friends were drowned inside the water.

Source: Sun