Posted: Apr 29, 2011
Emotions ran high in Lagos yesterday as the remains of Super Eagles’ defender Olubayo Adefemi were committed to mother earth even as his team-mates have vowed to honour him by qualifying for next year’s African Cup of Nations finals.
The corpse of the talented defender was brought into the country via Italy on Monday night but the restrictions that attended Tuesday’s gubernatorial and State House of Assembly elections made it impossible to bury him earlier than Thursday, as key personalities in Nigerian football fraternity were determined to pay him final respects.
At Thursday’s lying-in-state and final burial programme were NFF’s 1st Vice President, Chief Mike Umeh, standing in for the President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari who is with the Flying Eagles in South Africa, as well as chairman of technical committee, Barrister Chris Green, who flew out of South Africa on Wednesday evening to be part of the final rites.
There were also Super Eagles’ Head Coach, Samson Siasia, Goalkeepers’ Coach Ike Shorounmu, Team Secretary Enebi Achor and Team Coordinator Emmanuel Attah.
Super Eagles’ skipper Joseph Yobo sent a message on behalf of the group, expressing sadness that other players could not be there to pay their last respects to the humble and gifted player, due to club commitments. Yobo lamented the demise of Olubayo, someone who wined and dined with the group a month ago during the Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia and the international friendly against Kenya, both in Abuja.
“The big honour we can give to Olubayo Adefemi is to go to Ethiopia in June and take the three points and eventually qualify for the 2012 African Cup of Nations”, stated Yobo in the message.
Chief Umeh, a former Team Manager of the national senior team, in emotion-laden voice, rued the untimely departure of the very respectful footballer, noting that the vacuum he has left would be difficult to fill in the national team that is on-going a re-building process.
Olubayo Adefemi died on Monday penultimate week when he lost control of the car he was driving on the road from his Greek base, Xanthi to Salonica, to board a flight to Nigeria.
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