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EX-CHIEFTAIN OF NSC, NFA, MIKE OKWECHIME IS DEAD

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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

 

A former Chairman of the then Nigeria Football Association, Colonel Mike Okwechime has died in Benin City this Friday. A family source spoke with www.sportsvillagesquare.com on condition of anonymity as the breaking of the news had not yet been made to members of the clan in the village.

This will possibly be done on Saturday. Okwechime passed on at Faith Mediplex Hospital along the Airport Road in Benin City. He was aged 87 which he celebrated last November 12.

The late colonel was the NFA chairman in succession to Sunday Dankaro in 1981 and was on the saddle till 1982 when he was succeeded by Navy Commodore Edwin Kentebe.

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Prior to his appointment as the NFA chairman, he had as a serving colonel headed the then National Sports Council (NSC) which became the National Sports Commission in 1971.

As head of the NSC in 1966, he was alleged to have seized the control of the Nigeria Olympic Committee in what appeared to be the first governmental interference of the Olympic body.

Col. Okwechime led the Nigerian contingent to the Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica. He however did not return with the Nigerian team as the Aguiyi Ironsi government that appointed him was overthrown during the 1966 Commonwealth Games.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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