An unnamed official of the Nigeria Football Federation and the chairman of Ogun State Football Association, Ganiyu Majekodunmi, were reportedly injured during a stampede at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja on Tuesday.
This comes as Nigeria was preparing for a crucial World Cup qualifying match between Super Eagles and the Ghanaian national team, Black Stars, The Punch reports.
It was learnt that the incident occurred at the VIP entrance gate of the stadium as fans overpowered security operatives to force their way in.
It was gathered that Majekodunmi landed on his knees and suffered some bruises after he was punched by the fans.
Some of the ball boys also suffered varying degrees of injuries.
Thousands of fans, who had waited impatiently outside the gates for over two hours, became unruly and forced themselves into the stadium at 3:25pm.
Goal.comย Online Editor, Shina Oludare, who was at the scene, said he was assaulted by soldiers, who saw him recording the chaos.
Recounting his ordeal, Oludare wrote on Twitter, โWhile recording a stampede scene at the entrance of the M.K.O Stadium, the military (three army & several policemen) attacked me, flogged d hell out of me & broke my phone despite identifying myself as a journalist with my accreditation hung around my neck.
โThe zeal to work has disappeared and I donโt know where to start. I just hope we donโt record any casualties
โOrganisation zero, crowd control zero. Nigeria, we love disgracing ourselves. was not given a chance to express myself as slaps landed on my face. In my over 12 years in this profession, I have never been this humiliated.โ
