Osun United: Ondo Govt. Distortion of Fact Shocking, Unfortunate – Odunlade

BEING TEXT OF PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSED ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 BY THE STATE OF OSUN COMMISSIONER FOR SOCIAL PROTECTION, SPORTS AND SPECIAL NEEDS, COMRADE BIYI ODUNLADE ON THE ATTACK ON PLAYERS, OFFICIALS AND SUPPORTERS OF THE OSUN UNITED FC BY PLAYERS AND SUPPORTERS OF SUNSHINE FC, AKURE AT THE DIPO-DINA STADIUM, IJEBU-ODE, OGUN STATE ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

 

Protocol!

 

Good morning gentlemen of the press. We are here to address you on the unprovoked, senseless and barbaric attack on the innocent players, officials and supporters of the Osun United FC by the uncultured and violent Sunshine FC, Akure and the thugs they mobilized to the Dipo-Dina Stadium, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State on Saturday, 23th September, 2017.

 

This press conference might not have been necessary but for the deceit, mischief and ungodliness of the Ondo State Commissioner for Youth and Sport, Mr Saka Yusuf Ogunleye who had alleged at a press conference that supporters of the Osun United FC attacked the Sunshine players and injured some of them in the process. We considered this allegation as a blatant lie, vituperations from the pit of hell and desperate attempt to lure the unsuspecting members of the public into misconstruing the true report on the brutalization of our players, officials, supporters and fans. The real aim is to turn the story against us to earn unjustified public sympathy. The Commissioner also made fruitless effort to politicize the show of shame and display of savage thuggery by the Sunshine FC by linking it with the reprehensible attack on the State of Osun Commissioner for Regional Integration, Hon. Bola Ilori by thugs suspected to have been sponsored by the Ondo State Government officials recently at another event in Akure. If we may ask, where does sport event relates with political activities?

 

May I quickly establish the fact that hooliganism and violence are synonymous with the Sunshine Stars of Akure as it has caused untold hardships and pains on many Nigerian clubs in the past and get banished from its Akure home ground. It should be noted that the Sunshine Stars FC, on the account of thuggery displayed in one of its recent matches was banished to Ijebu-Ode for its own matches because of the hooliganism and vicious hacking of the players, officials and supporters of opposition teams. With the event of last Sunday, it is obvious that the leopard will never change its skin. The Sunshine Stars displayed its crudeness at its highest, as they launched attack on the Osun United FC players, officials and supporters when it was obvious we were on the victory run.  It is worth knowing and noting that the fact that the Ondo Commissioner for Sports, Mr Saka Ogunleye who cooked up the lies against Osun United FC supporters was not in Ijebu-Ode with us. It is a big shame, fraudulent and absolute disgrace to all that is good and Omoluabi ethos that he could comfortably weave together mischievous and malicious lies told to him and present it as the account of event he did not witness. If Mr Ogunleye could publicly lie, the way he did against the viciously attacked innocent supporters of the Osun United FC, then, we dare say that he lacks the integrity and credibility to be part of any upright administration.

 

THE TRUE STORY

On Saturday, 23^rd September 2017, Osun United FC and Sunshine FC had played the second leg match of the AITEO Cup at the Dipo-Dina Stadium, Ijebu-Ode. The match started at 4pm smoothly with supporters of both sides cheering their clubs peacefully. The Osun United FC had defeated Sunshine FC at the first leg match played at Osogbo City Stadium on Wednesday, September 20, with a lone goal.

The second leg match at Dipo-Dina stadium was on peacefully till the interval (half-time) when Sunshine FC Coach, Mr Duke Udi and supporters of the team started embarrassing and harassing officials, players and the supporters of Osun United.

 

The officiating teams were not spared from the verbal venom. It was later discovered that the referee of the match, Mr Ferdinand Udoh from Akwa Ibom State, had been obviously compromised by the Sunshine FC and its allies. In showing his decided bias to the Osun United, Referee Udoh issued 6(six) yellow cards to players of Osun United FC and also awarded a questionable penalty against our team. The controversial penalty afforded the Sunshine FC to score the second goal, while Osun United had one goal. Despite the unwarranted, satanic and pre-meditated penalty, the supporters of the Sunshine Club did not stop the verbal assaults on our supporters, apparently they prepared to intimidate and unleash terror on us.

 

The match continued until the injury time when the referee allowed an offside for the Sunshine FC to score its controversial third goal, while he denied Osun United a direct Free-Kick which might have given another goal advantage to make the match a 3-2 result and put the aggregate at 3-5 in favour of Osun United FC. This did not go down well with supporters of the Osun United FC and they began to shout on top of their voices in protest. The supporters of the Sunshine FC who had been hauling abusive words on the Osun United supporters quickly seized the opportunity and launched a physical attack on them, leading to pandemonium. Of course, the match got disrupted and the story is what we are telling now.

 

Bad enough, it was discovered that the supporters of Gateway FC and Remo Stars FC joined forces with those of Sunshine FC to attack Osun United Football Club. For the benefit of hindsight, Osun United had earlier defeated Gateway Football Club of Ogun State in the 2017 League (week 28) on Saturday 9th September 2017 by 2 goals to nothing, thereby cutting short their aspiration to get promoted to the Nigeria Professional Football League. This blow was fatal to the Ogun Gateway Football Club, hence their resolve to join forces with Sunshine FC. Also, Remo Football Club of Ogun State had also been a victim of Osun United FC’s defeat in the recent past. Their supporters were in the Stadium that day (Saturday 23rd September) supporting Sunshine FC as a matter of vendetta against a ravaging Osun United FC.

During the attack, the second goalkeeper of Osun United FC and the captain of the team, Akeem Olalere, a.k.a Kebu were grievously injured by the attackers. Five of the buses that conveyed Osun United FC and supporters to the stadium were vandalized by the supporters of the Sunshine FC in league with those of Gateway United and Remo Stars. The supporters of Sunshine Stars, Gateway United and Remo Stars were so unruly that it took the combined efforts of soldiers and the police to quell the uproar and came to our rescue and returned normalcy. The attackers actually held Osun contingent hostage for hours.

 

The case was reported at Igbeba Police Division at Ijebu-Ode. Six of the Sunshine FC Supporters and three supporters of the Osun United FC were arrested by the police. Some hoodlums from Ijebu-Ode who were caught in the act of vandalisation were also arrested, with particular reference to a non-Yoruba speaking female staff member/athlete of Ogun State Sport Council who was caught vandalizing the buses. However, the arrested Osun United Supporters were released on Sunday, 24^th September, 2017.

 

The greatly obvious bias, misconduct and compromise of the officiating referee, Mr Ferdinand Udoh, has been reported to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

 

Gentlemen of the press, that is the true accounts of what transpired at the Dipo-Dina stadium during Osun United Match with Sunshine FC. We have both video and photo evidence to buttress our claims and we challenged Ondo State Commissioner for Sport to produce the pictures of any of its vehicle vandalized.

 

We refuse to be deceived by the pictures of two faceless people published in yesterday’s Tribune newspaper to portray the victims of the attack by the Ondo Youth and Sport Commissioner.

 

It is unfortunate that Ondo State Commissioner for Youth and Sport, Mr Saka Yusuf Ogunleye could stoop so low to the level of lying to defend the indefensible – the uncivilized, criminal, and barbaric actions of the uncultured players and supporters of the Sunshine FC. It is not the first time they were caught in such behavior and like we noted earlier, the leopard will not change its skin. And we emphasize that this deliberate attack in football has nothing to do with the other deliberate attack on Hon Bola Ilori in Akure by the political attack dogs set on him, allegedly by officials of the Ondo state government, as stated by the victim, Ilori himself. We note too, that attack on fellow human being/s, be it on the field of play or on the campaign rostrum is reprehensible, condemnable and ungodly. It is unfortunate that Ogunleye, the tale telling man is a cabinet member in the administration of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

I will like to end this address by saying that Osun United FC and its supporters have always been peaceful and professional as a football club unlike our neighbor Sunshine FC which is known for thuggery. We reject any attempt to smear our image by some unscrupulous elements, no matter how highly placed.

 

Thank you for listening.

 

Comrade Biyi Odunlade

Commissioner for Social Protection, Sports and Special Needs

State of Osun