A frightful place

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A frightful place

By Clem Oluwole

The Jos Township Stadium is becoming a frightful place. Frightful for acts of hooliganism? Not quite far from that.

Last Saturday, the current Benue-Plateau State Soccer League competition took off simultaneously in Jos. The league opened with the Jets-Police encounter and a colleague who was in Jos for a happy weekend had his 30 Naira stolen while struggling to enter the stadium via the V. I. P. gate. 

I understood the stadium gates – five of them – were thrown open as early as 2 p.m. but up till 5 p.m. that I arrived for the match, the gates were still heavily jammed with struggling fans most of whom had no genuine desire to go in for the match.

I joined in the wrestling at the V. I. P. gate and I rode a human horse into the stadium. It was a free but unpleasant ride much as I tried to keep my feet on the ground.

My colleague’s plight was one out of several cases of pick-pocketing now rampant at the stadium. And whoever designed the stadium without any regard for the comfort and safety of spectators, most especially at the gates, is the worst offender.

Last Saturday, like any other day when there is a crowd-pulling match, pick-pockets virtually took over the control of the fertile V. I. P. gate. And as I was wrestling my way into the stadium, I spotted a number of pick-pockets who pretended to be club supporters soliciting for a free entry. They carried out their operation in arithmetical progression. They would pound their way to the last door, ransacking pockets until they were sent back by the football association’s human turnstiles upon failing to produce their tickets.

Of course, they would not resist being sent back. They would simply renew their operation from behind until they were turned back again at the gate, tearing pockets in the process.

The Benue-Plateau Football Association is duty bound to ensure that its patrons are safe to come to the stadium. The Sports Council which is responsible for the maintenance of the stadium should provide, without any delay, iron turnstiles at the gates. Provision of turnstiles will ensure that one spectator goes into the stadium at a time. The more we preach sporting awareness, the greater the number of sports fans and the less effective the use of human turnstiles.

Turnstiles notwithstanding, the football association must see to it that its ticket sellers are positioned a few yards from the gates so that only the spectators with tickets can move to the gates.

The association should not take any occasion for granted. Adequate security measures are necessary during matches, be they friendly or competitive, to guarantee the safety of players, match officials and spectators in view of the part which hooliganism has come to play in our sports, Ilorin being a typical example.

Like last Saturday, not a single policeman or security agent was in view. All these precautionary measures should be extended to the Makurdi Stadium.

Mr. Wilson Enyi, Chairman of Plateau Dynamos Football Club of Jos, on Wednesday, made a series of appeals. Among his appeals were the take over of the Baptist Day School to be used as an annex to the Jos Township Stadium. He also called on the Benue-Plateau Football Association (BPFA) to use the current league competition to group clubs in the state in divisions.

What interests me most in Mr. Enyi’s chain of appeals is the call for the reconstitution of the Jos Amateur Football Association (JAFA). JAFA is a sick baby of the Benue-Plateau Football Association. As Mr. Enyi said, JAFA ceased to exist as far back as 1973 when the JAFA League competition was abandoned midway.

I also thought that was the end of JAFA until last week when a cup presented to the Sports Council by the Chief of Jos, Mr. Fom Bot, was handed to JAFA to gather dust… in spite of the facilities at its disposal in Jos.

I expected the BPFA to dissolve JAFA after the latter’s walkout at the Full Council Meeting of the former which took place in Keffi late last year.

I do hope the BPFA is not becoming a toothless bulldog. 

Culled from Saturday Commentary (October 18, 1975).