CAN 2008: Akwaaba

I hear Akwaaba means welcome in one of the native Ghanaian languages.
The sign is boldly painted at the Kotoka International airport and most places you go you see the sign, AKWAABA though I have hardly heard any one say the words to me.

I am in Takoradi, a city very close to Sekondi. That is my base for at least the next one week. I might return to Nigeria after that but it all depends.

I made the eight hour road journey from Lagos on Saturday, my second time in Ghana even though my first trip was by air.

People kept saying the road trip will be cool because of the scenery but did I see the scenery? No! I slept from Lagos to Coundji border and then I only really saw the scenery from when we got into Ghana from Aflawho (sp) border.

We finally got into Ghana at 3pm after leaving Lagos at about 8am and after that we actually got into Accra at about 6pm and first things first we had to go to the Koffi Annan center for accreditation.

That was the worst accreditation center I have ever witnessed in my life. Even Nigeria we think is not organised does it better.

It was a complete sham and fighting match for four hours and at a time the Nigerian journalists got frustrated because right from behind them, the officials started attending to Malians, Benenoise, Moroccans and Angolans and then told the Nigerians they had closed until Monday and this was just Saturday.

At that point the Nigerians decided to barricade the door, almost like holding the officials hostage because in their reasoning accreditation does not end until the end of the tourney and the people would have best run shifts to clear out the crowd.

Some of the Nigerian journalists got into fighting bouts with the Ghanaian police who wanted to forcefully push them out and lock the doors and when that did not work they decided to resume the accreditation.

Pick pockets also invaded the place and one official complained she lost her bag and three hundred thousand cedis, then one Ghanaian journalist cried out that he just lost two hundred and fifty thousand cedis and he started blaming the Nigerian journalist until one of us shouted at him saying there were Nigerians, Ghanaians, Malians, Benenoise, Angolans and Moroccans present there so why would he blame the Nigerians and that was when he kept quiet.

Truly I seriously doubted he lost anything.

After that we eventually got accredited and whilst I wanted to spend the night at Accra the Nigerian contingent said they would go to Takoradi that night so I joined them and we eventually got there and packed in from of the Ray Bow hotel (where the Super Eagles were lodged) at about 2am on Sunday morning.

You bet we slept in the bus and at day break I eventually got a place at the New Mexico Hotel where I paired with a certain Arafat Aliyu who works with Hot 98.3 FM in Abuja.

Now it was time to start the business for the day and attend the last Super Eagles training session before the match against Ivory Coast.

My fingers hurt so I must stop now.

Nigeria's predator coaches

Felix Ibe: the big cover up 1

Some time ago, while at work in Port Harcourt, I received a call from a player at Rivers Angels who told me one of the younger players in the team came to her room crying that Felix Ibe (Gabosky) had been touching her in unprintable places.

The player, a teenager called Ifeoma was in her first year as a footballer having joined club from Aba that year.

She admitted that Felix Ibe told her he will make or mar her career depending on what she says to his overtures and he was in the habit of sending her on errands to his room.

"Most times when I want to put something in his fridge he grabs me from behind and it has been happening regularly," Ifeoma said.

Ifeoma stopped playing football at the end of the 2003 football season, maybe as a result of what she faced in the hands of Felix Ibe, we would never know.

Another player that was allegedly harassed by Felix Ibe at the Rivers Angels camp that year was Regina, the central defender but no one really knew about Regina for sure, they just suspected but she never complained.

Only Ifeoma complained about being sexually harassed by Felix Ibe.

You must understand that at Rivers Angels, Gabosky lived in the camp with his players, in the same building.

The Rivers Angels camp is one house with rooms in it and Gabosky stayed in one of the rooms in the midst of his girls.

I then approached the club chairman, Larry Eze telling him of my revelation and asking if he knew Gabosky had been touching the players in the team and why he even allowed the coach live in the same building as the players and his answer totally shocked me out of my bones.

This is what the club chairman, Larry Eze told me.

"I have told Gabosky several times that he should just get a girlfriend in the team so every body can know who he is dating in the team but it seems he likes sleeping with all the girls so I have decided to leave him alone."

That was the reaction of a club chairman to allegations that his coach was sleeping with some of his players.

At that time I rested my case on the Gabosky issue because I felt the club chairman was involved in the same racket and I was not too keen on doing more than I had already done until one year later when Nigeria's Falconets prepared for the World under 19 Championships in Thailand.

I received a call from a player in the team, Kome Williams, then with Rivers Angels but in the camp of the Falconets and she said the coach had invited her to his room and wanted a sexual affair with her in exchange for a place on the team.

I asked if she had been dropped because it could be proved that dropped players would say things just to save face but she was still part of the team then and remained a part for a long time after but insisted that the coach had tried to touch her and promised he would take her to the World Cup if she fell for his overtures.

I asked if she knew other players who could corroborate her story and she gave me four other names.

One of the players begged not to mention her name but said Gabosky never asked her for sex because she was like a younger sister to him since they were both from the same village but he actually asked her to "connect" some girls to him for sex.

According to her, Gabosky knew he would be taking a risk to ask his "sister" for sex so he thought it was wiser to ask her to introduce other girls to him for sex.

Did she introduce girls on the team to the coach? She said no. do you believe her? That is left for you to decide.

I spoke to at least ten players at the time, some names I cannot remember now and none of them exonerated Gabosky.

I also called Alhaja Ayo Omidiran and intimated her on my findings and she swore she was going to investigate it and asked that the girls see her.

Out of the lot, only Kome Williams was ready to talk about it and Omidiran promised to keep their identities secret.

Now all these sound like Old wives fables so I guess what people want to know is, Did Felix Ibe really sleep with all those girls?

Next week: the names of Super Falconet's players Felix Ibe sexually assaulted