Armstrong Bakam and Idris Adesina
FIFA referee Bose Momoh sustained a serious injury to her eye after she was allegedly attacked with a stone by a suspected Wikki Tourist fan during Sunday’s Premier League match between the Bauchi club and Rangers at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium in Bauchi.
The Nigeria Referees Association protested the development, calling for protection for referees and tougher sanctions for clubs whose fans attack referees during games.
The game ended 1-1, and the home fans were not happy with the performance of Momoh, who was the second assistant referee in the encounter.
The fan indentified as Mohammed Isa was said to have invaded the pitch to attack Momoh.
An eyewitness told one of our correspondents on Monday that some of the fans of the home team felt aggrieved by the “bad officiating in the match”.
The source said, “Wikki fans felt the woman wasn’t fair to them.
“Suddenly, a fan rushed into the pitch and threw a stone at the assistant referee, which injured her left eye.
“She fell and started rolling on the ground. The match was stopped for about 14 minutes while she was being treated by the medical team. Even after she was treated, she never returned to the pitch.”
Confirming the incident in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents, spokesman for Wikki Bala Kurba claimed that the centre referee and his assistant (Momoh) were biased against the hosts.
He said the Bauchi State-owned club had written a protest letter to the League Management Company about the refereeing of the clash.
“It was like the referee, Benjamin Odey, and Bose Momoh came to Bauchi to rob Wikki Tourists,” Kurba alleged.
He denied that Isa was one of the supporters of his team.
He said, “He is not a supporter of Wikki but he rushed into the pitch during the match and stoned the assistant referee.
“Our club’s security official there beat him to a coma. After he recovered, we handed him over to the police.”
The NRA president, Tade Azeez, who spoke to our correspondents on the telephone, condemned the attack on Momoh.
The NRA boss said, “I want to tell everybody that I don’t want to be the president of dead referees. The attack on referees in the country is becoming regular and we cannot fold our hands as if nothing is happening.
“Something needs to be done urgently before fans of some clubs kill a referee during a match. There should be tougher punishments than currently being given to clubs by the league organisers.
“From the Premier League to the NNL and even the women’s league, referees have been attacked. I heard that a club chairman of one of the women’s league teams attacked a referee in her hotel after a match didn’t go their way and now another one in Bauchi, where the referee sustained some injuries to the head and face.”
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