The NPFL 2025 season started on a high note with kudos flying around about the rejuvenated Nigerian football league, as fans began to troop back to our stadia to enjoy the local league.
Little did we know that was a flash in the pan as thuggery and fan disturbance returned as the ‘win-at-all-cost’ syndrome aroused again. Initially, the NPFL league organisers took drastic decisions on teams who fell foul of this but some were treated with disdain as some were treated with kids glove.
It is in this light that Plateau United comes to mind and the question ‘who wants Plateau utd out of the NPFL?, this is pertinent in view of the fact that the Plateau utd home match against Rangers witnessed Little skirmishes even few kilometres outside the stadium but the NPFL was quick to deduct points, fine & stadium ban but similar incidents involving Nasarawa Utd and Bendel Insurance, were reviewed and points returned & retained but not for Plateau utd.
The NPFL Match day 33 involving Nasarawa Utd and Plateau utd at the Lafia City stadium, witnessed a dastardly scene where a Plateau player, Vincent Temitope, who also plays for the Super Eagles B, was stabbed after the match. With the Plateau utd making frantics effort to reach the league organisers who upon getting the information, cautioned Plateau from sharing the pictures on the media platforms. However, in the ere of social media, these has gone viral.
Speaking on a flagship sports programme on Peace 90.5FM ‘Total Football Extra’ anchored by the renowned Sammy Adesoji, the media officer of Plateau utd,
Yaksat Maklek, said ‘its unfortunate that most of our stadia across the country hardly provide adequate cover for visiting players, Technical staff, media teams, that’s the reason we’ve always taken measures to control security in jos’
On the player attacked, Maklek gave a vivid scenario, ‘some fans came to Temitope, pretending to take pictures but one of the fans attacked him with knife which led to profuse bleeding, thank God it was not deep but was later rushed to the Federal Medical Centre,FMC,Lafia, where he is presently receiving treatment and stabilised already’.
‘It’s quite unfortunate that despite all the difficulties we’ve faced in the season, the league body has been unfair to us, I was attacked at the Muhammadu Dikko stadium in Katsina, now in Lafia, our player is attacked with a knife, player the NFF recognises as a Super Eagles B player, I think something drastic must be done.Our General Manager, Mr Hosea Mutla, has done everything humanly possible to get to the Chief Operating Officer,COO of the league body, Mr Davidson Owumi, but nothing seems to be working’.
As we await the response of the NPFL, hopefully, a step in the right direction will be taken to put an end to these disturbing incidents. Is this a ploy to help Nasarawa utd avoid the drop?
It would be recalled that Nasarawa United defeated Plateau United 3-2 before some fans pretending to be Vincent Temitope’s fans in Lafia, were allegedly accused of using knife on the player that gave him some deep cut on his neck.
Credit: Nathaniel Mobolade, Jos
