Coach Stanley Eguma
• NOC mourns former scribe, William Boyd
Rivers United Football Club were thrown into confusion on Tuesday when news broke that their manager, Stanley Eguma, have been abducted by unknown bandits. Also on Monday in Jos, unknown gunmen killed the assistant stadium General Manager at the Rwang Pam Stadium, Isa Garba.
Rivers United were in Gombe for a League game on Sunday against Adamawa United and on their way back to Port Harcourt, Eguma was abducted around the Enugu axis.
Quoting sources within the club, nigerianfootballer.com reported, “Coach Eguma did not return with us. You know he drives in his own official car. We just heard this and we are waiting to hear from the club management.” Eguma was said to be travelling with two of his personal assistants and it is not now known if they were abducted alongside him or were left to go.
Eguma’s is the second high profile kidnapping of a League coach in recent times after Abdulahi Biffo spent about a month in kidnappers’ den a few months ago.
In Jos, Assistant Manager, Rwang Pam Stadium, Isa Garba was yesterday afternoon shot dead in his office at the Rwang Pam Township Stadium in Jos.
According to eyewitnesses, four young boys alighted from a tricycle (Keke Napep), went straight to Garba’s office and shot him first at the stomach and later on his head at close range.
When The Guardian visited the scene, the deceased’s blood was all over the place with several bullet holes on the wall.
Meanwhile, former Secretary General of the Nigeria Olympics Committee (NOC), Dr. William Boyd, 71, died in the early hours of yesterday. Until his death, Boyd was the president, Nigerian Baseball and Softball Association.
He was one of the founding members of the Nigerian Baseball and Softball Association in 1989 and the first Secretary General, the position he held for 16 years.
He was a medical practitioner with specialisation in sports medicine and also an astute sports administrator. He was Assistant Secretary General of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (1993 to 1997) and Secretary General (1997 to 2001). He assisted fully in the coordination of the 8th All Africa Games, Abuja 2003.
In a statement yesterday by the Public Relations Officer of NBSA, Mr. Robert Onwukwe, the association expressed deep and heartfelt condolences to Boyd’s family. The statement disclosed that Boyd would be buried in Lagos on July 1, 2021.