Former Gateway FC Player cries out for help

By Aanu Adeloye, Ibadan

A former player of the Gateway Football Club, Abeokuta, Ogun State Oluwaseyi Awoyele has cried out for help over knee injury sustained after attack by suspected hoodlums in the Agege Stadium after a football match.

Awoyele, a one time player of the Union Bank Football club, Lagos under Coach Henry Nwosu, a former Nigeria International in an emotion ladden voice told our reporter that his ordeal started in 2014 after a football match between his club, Gateway Football Club and Kano Pillars at Agege Stadium in Lagos .

According to him, “I started my football playing career under Coach Henry Nwosu between 2010 and 2011. I left Lagos for Jigawa where I played the pre-season matches for Jigawa Golden Stars of Jigawa State.

“The Jigawa state Football Club found me impressive and signified its readiness to sign me on for the 2012 session, but could not due to the insistence of my former Club, Union Bank Football Club of Lagos to release me without being paid and this left me stranded “. He added.

Resolved not to go back to Lagos, he explained that he stayed put in the North Western State and eventually came across a ‘prospective ‘ saviour who offered to be his manager and who was identified simply as CID, a Kano resident and propirator of a small football academy.

Awoyele further disclosed that it was his manager that took him to Kano and housed him in his ‘No man’s land ‘ residence, very close to Sabongari in the Kano State Capital and from where he was going to his academy to train along side other football players.

“I however noticed that my manager was always an object of attack at his own academy by some Hausa people virtually on daily basis and it was on inquiry that I was told that he was being attacked because he’s a gay.

“Matter got to a head a few days later when some suspected Islamic fundamentalist ,sharia group stormed my manager’s house where I was residing in the dead of the night and set it ablaze and I only managed to escape through the back door and that was how I found my way back to Lagos. It was later I gathered that the sharia group had declared me wanted. ”

It was on his return to Lagos, according to him that he located his former coach, Henry Nwosu, who said he should come to Gateway Football Club and became the club’s player. “I was part of the team that defeated Kano Pillars at Agege Stadium in 2014 and that became my Albatros.

“It was when I was taking my bath at Agege stadium that Kano pillars players/ supporters stormed on me and inflicted various degrees of injuries on me “.

Awoyele said that, “the incident landed me in Ikorodu General Hospital where my medical condition was revealed through a letter dated 2nd April 2014 and signed by Dr. Ayoade O. T. (Senior Medical Officer), tittled ‘To Whom it May Concern, Re:Awoleye Oluseyi-Male medical certificate of knee injury.”

It was stated in the report that, “This to confirm that I have examined the above named and found him not to be physically and mentally fit. His knee Right Leg is not properly alright, and other laboratory investigations are within the normal limit.”