I had a chance encounter with the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, on an Abuja-bound flight in 2005. I was going for one of the defunct Interim League Board meetings. He sat beside me and we exchanged pleasantries. But it appeared Arase knew I didn’t know him too well.
Arase struck a discussion, once the aircraft was airborne. He talked about some of the columns I wrote at Thisday. I told him I had left Thisday. I listened as he discussed sports. He was detailed in his analysis. He then mentioned Barrister Godwin Dudu Orumen. Enthralled by Arase’s deep knowledge of sports which lasted for close to 40 minutes, I sought for his identity. He told me. He was coming from a training in the United States. We exchanged telephone numbers.
I called Arase when he was appointed the Acting Inspector General of Police. The telephone rang out. I then sent a message and he replied: “Thanks.”
The 45 minutes discussion with Arase wasn’t a monologue. He wanted to know why I was going to Abuja. He got excited when I talked about attending a Nigeria League Board meeting.
I told him that sanity would return to the domestic game if we had mobile policemen and Directorate of State Services (DSS) men taking charge of security in the stadia before, during and after matches.
Curious, Arase wanted to know why I told him that most of the security operatives at league venues were supporters of the home teams. In fact, most of them were more fanatical than the fans. Otherwise, how come games end in near carnage and no arrests are made?
Arase brought out a note pad from his breast pocket, writing down the points I made. He then asked if that was the only cause of violence. I retorted by saying that most of the club chairmen are unruly people, appointed by politicians to fulfill electoral promises to them. These club chairmen incite the fans with their gestures during matches and open reprisal of match referees at the touch line.
“But Ade, whose duty is it to provide security for matches officials and others during games?” Arase asked?
“Of course, the club officials,” I replied. But, like the saying goes, he who pays the piper dictates the tune. Clubs then paid the referees their indemnities and the match arbiter always did their biddings under duress (fans’ threats from the stands, including pelting them with sachets of water as the game progressed). But Chief Oyuiki Jackson changed that format by paying the cash into the referees’ accounts two days before the game in a bid to reduce contact between clubs officials and referees, I told Arase.
“So, Ade, why are you advocating for mobile policemen and SSS to provide security at match venues? Is it that the regular policemen are not competent?” Arase asked. “Not exactly,” I told the police chief. “The problem is that most of them are ardent supporters of the home side and are regulars at the stadium. Furthermore, many of the policemen that you see at match venues are not assigned to such beats. So, when violence breaks out, they disappear. Will you blame them? Nobody wants to lose his daily bread. This is the reason culprits go scot free. Sadly, the club officials know this and have exploited it.”
“How many policemen are assigned to the match venues?” the police boss asked. The rule recommends 50 security operatives. But the num ber (50) can’t cage the thugs when violence breaks out. They are usually not armed. They come with batons and canisters of tear gas. These criminals at match venues are experts in fomenting trouble. They wet their vests in kerosene or water and pick up these canisters and fling them back to the security operatives.
It must be said that these beasts are not spirits. They are known football touts in such cities. And the only way to get them for prosecution would be for the League Management Committee (LMC) to get the official television broadcast network to record all the games. What this implies is that even if the touts succeed in destroying the evidence on the pitch, the owners of the television rights will provide visuals from the one recorded back in the office. Such visuals will clearly show those who cast the first stone.
I told Arase that the presence of 20 mobile policemen and 10 DSS operatives is enough to keep the venues safe. Besides, if they are non indigenes of the home team’s base, it is better. They will also keep their eyes on events inside and outside the stadium.
Perhaps, also sir, I said, the referees can be escorted by security operatives blaring their vehicles’ siren as we have during international matches. No tout will dare obstruct the convoy taking match officials and the visiting team out of the stadium. The frenzy associated with the arrival and departure of match officials and the visiting teams in international matches is such that anyone seeking to take the laws into his/her hands must do a very serious rethink.
Arase nodded his head. Suddenly, the pilot’s voice from the cockpit announced the beginning of the aircraft’s descent into Abuja. Our discussion was punctuated. But Arase concluded by saying that the Interim League Board should write the Inspector General of Police, stating their case. But he warned that the League Board chiefs should visit the governors where games are played to explain their predicament- governors are the chief security officers of the states.
At the arrival lounge, I knew that Arase was a very senior policeman, what with the battery of guards that ushered him into his official car. I mentioned my encounter with Chief Obaseki and he continued the quest for sanity at match venues following the lead from Arase. I didn’t return to the League Board. I chose to face my job. I digress.
Violence at match venues occurs because we have refused to prosecute and jail the criminals who cause the carnage. Teams which suffer from such unruly behaviour, return home to await their hosts in the second leg game. Even when punishments are meted out, they are reversed on intervention by bigwigs. The thugs, roughnecks and urchins storm the stadium with raised chest, warning that they are around and not scared to repeat the mayhem.
Sadly, the league chiefs are poor students of history. Otherwise, venues that are notorious for violence ought to have been locked up or matches held there shown live on television. With matches shown live, it would be much easier to spot these criminals and their acolytes from replays after the violence.
Until club chairmen and their board members are prosecuted and jailed for not producing the hoodlums who harm referees and spectators, these buffoons would continue to make league venues death traps and not recreation centres. How would as many as 40 able-bodied men use all manner of weapons on a hapless referee, who gets no help from anybody?
What happened in Akure wasn’t new. This dastardly act has repeated itself because no one was made to face the wrath of the law. The stadium wasn’t locked for one year as the rules provides for. The club wasn’t denied revenue from its home games – one of the consequences of being banned. A club that plays over 28 matches outside its abode will definitely be better behaved after serving the ban. It simply means that such clubs’ management must source for cash to travel, feed, accommodate their players as well as provide other logistics. The burden of such expenses would compel the clubs owners to be orderly.
I’m sad that the referee who suffers the most would get N250,000. What is that? Is that what his life is worth? How would such a referee be firm next time, knowing the pains he went through? Such paltry sums propel unruly fans to repeat such dastardly acts. The referee deserves to be paid N2 million because the bodily harm suffered on that day may trigger untold illnesses. You never can tell. Such staggering sums paid to three referees translates to N6 million. It would be difficult for board members of such clubs to defend this when tendering their statements of accounts to their sponsors at the end of the season.
Amusement Park
Super Eagles isn’t an amusement park. It isn’t also a venue for pleasure seekers; nor is it a place where people frolic and do what pleases them. I’m excited that Eagles chief coach Sunday Oliseh isn’t scared to step on toes. He has stuck to the rules. And it is quite pleasing that Victor Moses has lost his place – no thanks to his irritable decision to dump the invitation to play for Nigeria in the two international friendly games against Cameroon and Congo DR at the last minute.
Moses chose playing for West Ham. He has been very spectacular in all his game despite the second half substitutions in all the games. Moses’ substitution could be part of the West Ham manager’s tactics and it is working well for the Hammers, with their incredible placing within the top brackets of the Barclays English Premier League table- a rarity for over a decade.
Oliseh’s decision to drop Moses is the elixir the team needs to make it competitive. Players now know that they must honour all the invitations extended to them. Those nursing the idea of colluding with their clubs to dodge or derail our plans to reinvigorate the Eagles would be given the Moses treatment – excluded from the team to allow those who partook in the team’s qualification exercise for major tournaments reap the fruits of their efforts.
