Troubles at Ilorin Township Stadium

Saturday’s NPL match between Kwara United and Sunshine Stars at the Ilorin Township Stadium was abandoned with a couple minutes left on the clock.

The match was still at 1-1 when the pandemonium broke down after Sunshine team manager allegedly ran on to the pitch and accused the Ilorin fans of attacking him.

Narrating the ordeal, Kwara media officer, Olusola Ajide told MTNFootball.com that ‘The Afonja Warriors’ suspected foul play when the centre referee was changed from Rev.Eze to Sani Mohammed form Kaduna.

Ajide said the referee was biased form the beginning of the match which makes them believe that he was brought for a mission in Ilorin.

He said the referee should be held responsible for the pandemonium that brought the game to an abrupt end when he gave Bolaji Shakin a yellow card when he was hacked down by Sunshine Stars defender in the 18-yard box instead of awarding a penalty.

“Our match with Sunshine was inconclusive, and I can tell you categorically that the centre referee Sani Mohammed from Kaduna caused it all,” charged Ajide.

“We suspected foul play when we discovered that the centre referee for the match was changed from Rev. Eze to Sani Mohammed, but we did not challenge him. He was completely biased with his handling of the match.

“We scored first through Anthony Okemiri in the 45th minute and when they equalised in the 84th minute, we did not react because it was a good goal.

"But what caused problem was when Bolaji Shakin was hacked down in the Sunshine 18-yard box in the 87th minute and instead for him to award a penalty, he yellow carded him. We were not happy with this the next thing we saw was Sunshine team manager running on to the pitch claiming he was attacked by our fans.”

In Ibadan, angry fans also held match officials hostage after they accused them of bias officiating.

The fans alleged that centre referee Patrick Ishaya from Kaduna State for biased officiating and accused the match commissioner for failing  to call Ishaya to order.
 
Some of the fans said that the referee caused them the victory.

''We had three legitimate penalty claims against Warri Wolves but the referee ignored two and gave us one,'' said Taiwo Usman, one of the fans.