Super Eagles vow to win Ethiopia match for late Olubayo

Emotions ran high as the remains of Super Eagles’ defender Olubayo Adefemi were committed to mother earth yesterday 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 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, 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.

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.