Cybereagles

Kako wrote:

Chief Ogbunigwe wrote:

Cellular wrote:

oloye wrote:A friend of mine was reminiscenting on one of the popular figures that made Nigerian football interesting in the 80,, the person of late Prof. Sam Akpabot, a lecturer at the University of Ibadan and also a sports columnist with the Nigerian Tribune. No one knew where or when this started from,but suddenly our prof came out professing to be a football oracle, one with the powers not only to predict the outcome of games but also one with the powers to influence its outcome.

On many occassion when Shooting stars of Ibadan are playing at home and are struggling to score, the self proclaimed oracle of Ibadan would go and position himself behind the visiting team's post, and he would even be seen with outstretched hands to the heavens praying for goals to rain down.

Talking about the legend that is Prof Akpabot, i remember my time as a player with Shooting stars of Ibadan. It was 89 season, the team was struggling badly in the league and relegation stared us in the face.

Typical of naija environment, all manner of measures to escape relegation was deployed. On the eve of our match to Rangers of Enugu at home, we brought in a so called spiritualist to pray for the team while in our camp. Well the man on top of the prayers instructed us that none of us dressed to play should speak to anyone from the time we enter the dressing, nor should we shake hands with anybody...una see me see trouble so!

The next day we filed into the dressing room like people attending a mourning procession,as we waited to be called in for the pre-match formalities, the prof aka the Oracle of Ibadan breezed into our dressing room. He announced to all that God has granted him special favors for the match, all we needed to do was shake his hands. So he proceeded to try to shake hands with the players, he stretched his hand to the first player, it was ignored, the second it was ignored, the third same thing....as he was approaching me i started trembling.

You see as an omoluabi i was not brought up to be rude to an elder, there was nothing in me that would make me to blatantly refuse an outstretched hand, especially one from a legend like the Oracle....what do i do?...Yepa mo daran!
As he approached the player sitting next to me, i quickly got up from my seat and made a hasty exit for the toilet...abeg i nor wan offend anyone, especially a whole oracle!

Dean, God bless you... love your stories.

Wasn't Prof Sam Akpabot a musician as well?

Yes he was a musician also.

oloye wrote:

Aswani wrote:

oloye wrote: the ref was an igbo man living in Lagos, he was sent to ref in ibadan to protect Rangers interest by the sec gen then a certain Achebe i think, a die hard Rangers fan.

He said he wont give us any undue penalty, so we continued playing until we scored.

Sir, you know not all Igbo people support Rangers, in fact Spartans and Vasco supporters probably detested Rangers more than IICC fans did!

I am not sure I agree with your statement on this. He could have sent someone from Kwara state (based on some of your stories suggesting anti IICC feelings) to do the dirty deed.

Feel free to argue even if you do not know the details. But before you do try to find out how selection of officials for matches can be influenced, dont just disagree because you want to, do so because you have your facts.

The same sec-gen did us a favor when we needed a ref to bail us out. Some of us did not just play in the naija system, we were privileged also to see how things work in the background.

Trust me on this ref, we all knew why he showed up in Ibadan and he did a damn good job ensuring Rangers did not lose !

I am a Rangers fan oooh ...so it is not the case of bias against Rangers. One day i will write a book on match officiating in Naija footy.

Yes he could have sent someone from Sokoto sef, but in this case it was an igbo man living in Lagos that he sent. This is not an anti-igbo tirade. When we went to play ACB in Lagos, our officials ran to sec-gen pleading that in the name of brotherhood, Rangers and Shooting going way back, he should do everything to help. He asked us to provide a ref favorable to our cause, we did, a yoruba man. The first thing we noticed (actually i raised the alarm), he was wearing a brand new boot, same brand the ACB players had...we knew he had dealt both ways!

He did a damn good job pleasing both teams, the game ended 0-0, but in the dying minutes of the game a skirmish happened around our box, there waa nothing worth blowing a foul for never mind a penalty, but he blew a penalty alright, one of our players booted the ball out in anger, another one Yidi ran to the ref and screemed right in his face....e be like say you don forget say you collect from us too.... It worked, the man changed his mind and awarded a goal kick to us.

Aswani wrote:

oloye wrote:

Aswani wrote:

oloye wrote: the ref was an igbo man living in Lagos, he was sent to ref in ibadan to protect Rangers interest by the sec gen then a certain Achebe i think, a die hard Rangers fan.

He said he wont give us any undue penalty, so we continued playing until we scored.

Sir, you know not all Igbo people support Rangers, in fact Spartans and Vasco supporters probably detested Rangers more than IICC fans did!

I am not sure I agree with your statement on this. He could have sent someone from Kwara state (based on some of your stories suggesting anti IICC feelings) to do the dirty deed.

Feel free to argue even if you do not know the details. But before you do try to find out how selection of officials for matches can be influenced, dont just disagree because you want to, do so because you have your facts.

The same sec-gen did us a favor when we needed a ref to bail us out. Some of us did not just play in the naija system, we were privileged also to see how things work in the background.

Trust me on this ref, we all knew why he showed up in Ibadan and he did a damn good job ensuring Rangers did not lose !

I am a Rangers fan oooh ...so it is not the case of bias against Rangers. One day i will write a book on match officiating in Naija footy.

Yes he could have sent someone from Sokoto sef, but in this case it was an igbo man living in Lagos that he sent. This is not an anti-igbo tirade. When we went to play ACB in Lagos, our officials ran to sec-gen pleading that in the name of brotherhood, Rangers and Shooting going way back, he should do everything to help. He asked us to provide a ref favorable to our cause, we did, a yoruba man. The first thing we noticed (actually i raised the alarm), he was wearing a brand new boot, same brand the ACB players had...we knew he had dealt both ways!

He did a damn good job pleasing both teams, the game ended 0-0, but in the dying minutes of the game a skirmish happened around our box, there waa nothing worth blowing a foul for never mind a penalty, but he blew a penalty alright, one of our players booted the ball out in anger, another one Yidi ran to the ref and screemed right in his face....e be like say you don forget say you collect from us too.... It worked, the man changed his mind and awarded a goal kick to us.

Your statement inferred that any Igbo man living in Lagos would have done the dirty deed and I was trying to point out that some Igbo people wouldn't do it for Rangers based on what I have read and heard.

I don't doubt for a minute that refs were compromised in the league and in fact I gather it still happened up until 6 years ago.

Obong wrote:Professor Samuel Ekpe Akpabot! A true legend of Nigerian football. We were on the same flight that brought officials, Supporters Club and journalists to the 1994 World Cup match against Bulgaria in Dallas. Very educative discussions that I had with him. He used his larger-than-life personality to literally prevent US Immigration from being unduly intrusive when we landed. His presence definitely ensured we had a great outing in the World Cup.