A Nigerian referee who officiated the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) match day three encounter on Sunday, January 20 between Remo Stars and Bendel Insurance, was beaten mercilessly by supporters who attacked him shortly after the match.
The Nigerian referee was beaten by fans of the Sagamu based football club, who were not impressed with the way he officiated the match. It was gathered that Remo Stars were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Bendel Insurance.
Charles Omokaro had put the visitors ahead, before Skipper Victor Mbaoma equalised for the Kennedy Boboye’s side. However with two minutes left on the clock, Remo thought they had secured the three points after Victor Mbaoma scored from close range from a well worked freekick only for the referees to ruled the effort out for offside.
Remo Stars management who released a statement over the assault incident, vowed to apprehend the perpetrators. The statement reads;
“A manhunt has started immediately as the management of the club and the Nigeria Police Force Sagamu division are working closely to ensure that the intruder is brought to book to face the consequences of his actions.“
“We totally regret and condemn this act as we don’t encourage violence in football.
“In the same vein of condeming this act we would also like to indicate that the centre referee Bethel Nwanesi calls all through the game were questionable and in the 88th minute a good goal was scored, which would have been the winning goal, was ruled offside and disallowed by the referee which caused an uproar among the fans.
“This of course is no reason why anyone should get hurt, we have lost games at home in the past against Plateau United, Enyimba FC, MFM FC, Rivers United without witnessing such violence.
We also want to make a staunch warming to supporters or individuals who come with the intention of disrupting or causing violence in the stadium as the club will severely deal with anyone found guilty of such behaviour.â€
