Match Commissioner Denies Any on Field Attack Against Sokoto United, Says NNL Should Investigate Further

 

Following the harsh and hasty summary jurisdiction released by the Nigeria National League (NNL) board after the matchday 7 game between Malumfashi FC and Sokoto United at the Abubakar Labo stadium in Malumfashi, Katsina State, the match commissioner Ibrahim Garuba from Jigawa State has stated in clear terms that he is not aware of any attack or beatdown of any players or officials of Sokoto United during and after the game.

The Jigawa-State born match commissioner stated that he is yet to submit full match comprehensive report to the NNL board.

"I am just writing the comprehensive report of the match because after the game was abandoned nothing happened."

According to Mallam Ibrahim Garuba, there were disagreement caused by the opposing team, Sokoto United due to time wasting tactics and which the center referee constantly warned against.

"After observing the normal protocol, the kickoff of the match started exactly 4PM and exactly two minutes of play, jersey number 29 of the away team, Sokoto United scored a goal.

"On the 28th minutes of play, the center referee gave a verbal warning to the away team's goalkeeper for a delay tactics."

Mallam Garuba hinged the situation that fueled the crisis between the two team on time wasting by the Sokoto United team which irritated the fans.

"There was a collision between Malumfashi FC player and that of Sokoto United player around 35th minutes of play and there was an instruction from the referee that the Sokoto United player to be taken off the field after treatment but this didn't go down well with the fans because the treatment continues after the instruction of the referee.

"After the substitution of the injured Sokoto United player then the goalkeeper started another time wasting tactics by faking another injury and all these attributed to the start of the fracas."

Mallam Garuba blamed Sokoto United team manager Umar Mohammed for taunting and verbally harassing Malumfashi FC supporters that were outside the arena which almost aggravated the whole issue.

"I saw Sokoto United team manager verbally assaulting the home team supporters and I instructed the 4th referee official to give him stern warning because his continuous confrontation with the home fans has already started causing trouble for us and for the game."

He said that, there was adequate security before the match was abandoned and no officials was attacked by the fans of both teams.

Mallam Garuba stressed that the match was tensed because the officials of Malumfashi FC felt they were being cheated and they accused the match officials of deliberately wanting to send the team out of the NNL league.

"The police protected us after the break when the fans and officials of Malumfashi started complaining.

"The police protected us by throwing tear gas to dispersed the surging crowd at the entrance of the dressing room."

He opined that the Sokoto United team abandoned the game due to what they termed as insecurity even when the match officials were ready to restart the second half of the match.

"We were inside the field of play and ready to start the second half when the Sokoto United team declined to show up from the second half.

"The referee gave enough time for the match to restart and the match officials pleaded with both sides to continue  the game but the Sokoto United team insisted they will not continue the match and so the referee ended the game and everybody walked back to the dressing room without any issues."

He concluded that nobody was beaten up or assaulted after the game was abandoned and till the very moment the match officials left the stadium.

"After the game, we went back to the dressing and walked away with the security escorting match officials whilst the  Sokoto United team were still inside the stadium without showing any incident of being harassed or molested."

Mallam Garuba hinted that he knew about the attack on the Sokoto United team the next day when he saw the post on social media.

He said that the match referees disappeared the next morning without informing him of their departure.

"Someone from NNL called me on my way to Jigawa state to know what happened, this was after my conversations with the referees a day after the game."

He called on the NNL board to properly investigate the incident that happened after the match to ensure that such episode doesn't repeat itself again.