Nigerian Football
Old Faithful, Ehimiaghe Family, renews insurance policy with Bendel Insurance FC
It looks more like a life insurance policy when the family of one of Bendel Insurance’s unrepenting supporters, Israel Menson Ehimiaghe offered a gesture of support to one of Nigeria’s legacy football clubs.
The family of the late Israel Menson Ehimiaghe (Bamawo) has donated a million naira to Bendel Insurance.
The Ehimiaghes see their gesture as an attempt to support a club that their late father worked for and supported during his lifetime.
“Wherever our late father is, he is going to be saying: “Na me born dem.” Before his death in December 1979, the late Israel Menson Ehimiaghe was the branch manager of the now-defunct Bendel Insurance Company in their office in Auchi.
From great beyond, Ehimiaghe offers assistance to Bendel Insurance.
One of the children of the late super supporter of the Benin Arsenal, Cornelius Ehimiaghe stated: “My father was a Bendel Insurance football club supporter through and through.
“I grew up hearing the slogan nobody can win us, only Bendel. When my late father was alive, there were commemorative clothes, T-shirts, caps, and paper flags that celebrated our winning the 1972 and 1978 Nigeria Challenge Cup.
“Though I could not read properly in 1978, there was a pictorial football magazine that covered our 1978 FA Cup victory over Enugu Rangers. After my father died in 1979, I more or less inherited all these football memorabilia, as well as his transistor radio.”
“Furthermore, I recall that after we won the Nigerian league in 1979, my late father scouted a street football in Auchi, got the permission of the player (Aminu Momoh) parents, drove the player to Benin City in his 504 Peugeot car, and introduced the player to coach Alabi Assien.
“After a brief trial, the young midfielder was employed by Bendel Insurance FC. My father used to plan his travel to Benin around the weekends that the Benin Arsenal had their home matches.
“The last of the matches he watched his beloved Bendel Insurance FC play was the semi-final match of the Africa Cup Winners Cup against Cannon Sportiff of Yaoundé, at the Ogbe Stadium in Benin in November 1979.
“The match ended in a goalless draw which meant that the Benin Arsenal failed to make it to the final due to a suspected offside goal by Onguene Manga, two weeks earlier in Yaoundé.
“A few years ago, I told Coach Alabi Assien that my late father would not have died on 12/12/1979 if the Benin Arsenal had triumphed over Cannon Sportiff.
“Without fear or favour, my late father would have negotiated with the angel of death to come and pick him up a few weeks later, after Bendel Insurance FC would have won the 1979 Africa Cup Winners Cup. The rest is history.”
“Growing up without a father in the austerity/structural adjustment ravaged the 1980s was very tough.
“Our grandparents, some of my mother’s “super cousins,” Barrister Charles Adogah (SAN) and late Auntie T.M. Faleye were very supportive.
“My elder brother and I had to also put in some odd job shifts to ensure that we did not go to bed hungry. I started working in the civil service in Bendel State before I was eighteen years old.
“I never one daydream of going to the university. However, after more than five years in the unemployment queue, my mother got a nursing job in UNIBEN. This ensured that we just managed to survive the almost wasted 1980s.”
“As part of following the footsteps of his late father, Cornelius Ehimiaghe also paid a courtesy visit to coach Alabi Assien and had a few minutes’ chat with the Management and coaching staff of Bendel Insurance FC, where he commended their efforts in steering the Benin Arsenal from relegation waters.
“The Ehimiaghes also donated two hundred thousand Naira to the supporters’ club of Bendel Insurance FC. “Win, lose or draw, we are proud of our “Up Bendel identity.”
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The Nigeria U17 women’s team has been given incentives to make it to the Women’s World Cup for the eighth time.
The team, Flamingos, who arrived in Algiers in the early hours of Wednesday aboard a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul, are highly inspired by the imminence of another FIFA World Cup ticket as well as further financial windfall from the Nigeria Football Federation and billionaire business mogul Kunle Soname.
Soname gifted the young players and their officials the sum of N4 million (one million naira for every goal) following their commanding win over the North Africans at the Remo Stars Stadium on Saturday, while the NFF gave out the sum of N2 million (five hundred thousand naira for every goal).
President of NFF, Ibrahim Musa Gusau and Soname have both confirmed that the same financial incentives are in place for the second leg in Blida on Friday.
“Our objective is clear – to win the FIFA World Cup ticket. That is the big motivation.
“Yet, we have been further incentivised by the monetary rewards. My girls will go all out on Friday night,” Head Coach Bankole Olowookere said.
Olowookere, who led the Flamingos to their last two World Cup ventures, will most likely rely on first-leg two-goal heroine Queen Joseph, lone-goal scorer Zainab Raji and Kaosarat Olanrewaju to start at the fore, with Shakirat Moshood, Muinat Rotimi and Philomena Isaiah supplying the passes from the midfield.
Goalkeeper and captain Christiana Uzoma and defenders Azeezat Oduntan, Hannah Ibrahim, Christiana Sunday and Jumai Adebayo are also likely to start.
The Confederation of African Football has selected Cameroonian official Marie Noelle Etong to be the referee, with her compatriots Marcelle Teikeu and Innocentia Ntangti as assistant referee 1 and fourth official, respectively, while Chadian Ngarassoum Victorine will be assistant referee 2.
Oumou Souleymane Kane from Mauritania will be the commissioner, and Sabelo Maphosa-Sibindi from Zimbabwe will be in the role of referee assessor.
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Former president of the initially 15-member West African Football Union (WAFU), Chief Jonathan Boytie Ogufere, has expressed his heartfelt condolences over the recent death of former national team captain and coach, Christian ‘Chairman’ Chukwu.
He remarked that the erstwhile Enugu Rangers’ defence stalwart will ‘be dearly missed’. In a personally signed letter of condolence, Ogufere described Chukwu, who died on Saturday, April 12, in Enugu after a brief illness at 74, as a ‘hero of our time and a friend’.
The nonagenarian recalled with nostalgia how he nearly recruited the young Chukwu for his P & T Vasco da Gama Football Club of Enugu, adding he was impressed with how the ‘Field Marshal Christian Chukwuemeka ‘Chairman ‘ Chukwu (MFR), conducted himself throughout his career as he led both the national team, the then Green Eagles and his beloved Enugu Rangers to many conquests.
“I join numerous others to mourn the transition of the legendary Christian Chukwu, a hero of our time and friend,” the Ugbugba of Okpe Kingdom wrote.
“As one of the young academicals discovered after the end of the Civil War in 1970, I tried to enlist into my club, the P & T Vasco da Gama Football Club of Enugu but he was fair and frank in informing me that he had already joined Enugu Ranges Football Club, and I respected that attitude. From the rivalries between the two clubs, his exploits as a central defender were very visible.”
He continued: “Christian Chukwu emerged at the national level as a trustworthy and formidable captain of the national team who led by example.
“He was one of the heroes during the Golden age of Nigerian football when I was one of the Board Members of the Nigeria Football Association under the chairmanship of Chief Sunday Dankaro as Nigeria won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980 for the first time where Christian Chukwu as captain of the Green Eagles was declared the best player of the tournament. He led the national team in several battles, which endeared him to millions of football lovers.
“After his playing days, he showed his talents through coaching in Nigeria and abroad.
“I express my sincere condolences to the family he left behind, the football family and the country in general. He will be dearly missed.
“May the good Lord grant his noble soul eternal rest,” he noted.
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Remo Stars are coasting to what will be their greatest moment ever, a win of the Nigeria Premier Football League title, as they recorded a 1-0 win over Shooting Stars in Ibadan in a match played behind closed doors.
In doing so, they achieved their sixth double of the season, having earlier beaten Shooting Stars in the first stanza of the league.
They maintained the seven-point lead over second-placed Rivers United, who also beat Sunshine Stars 1-0 in Port Harcourt.
After a ding-dong affair, Alex Oyowah scored the vital goal for Remo Stars from a right-wing cross from Ismail Sodiq.
In another match, Ikorodu City continued to work tenaciously to obtain a continental ticket as they held El Kanemi to a 1-1 draw.
SUNDAY RESULTS
- El Kanemi 1-1 Ikorodu City
- Niger Tornados 1-1 Bayelsa United
- Heartland 0-0 Kwara United
- Plateau United 1-0 Akwa United
- Rivers United 1-0 Sunshine Stars
- Shooting Stars 0-1 Remo Stars
- Bendel United 1-1 Nasarawa United
SATURDAY
- Katsina United 0-0 Abia Warriors
- Enyimba 2-1 Kano Pillars
- Lobi Stars 2-4 Enugu Rangers
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