Ex-Remo player, Sporting Supreme official lament police assault

Former Remo Stars player Olamilekan Adams and the media officer of Sporting Supreme FC of Abuja, Nelson Mobougwu, as well as one other player of the club, were assaulted by men of the Nigeria Police last Wednesday after Sporting Supreme’s Nigeria National League game against Bichi First FC of Kano, at the Bwari Stadium in Abuja, The PUNCH reports.

Adams, who is also a former player of the Abuja-based club, and the two others were wrongly taken for irate fans who disrupted the flow of the game after the visitors ran out 1–0 winners in controversial circumstances.

Things are said to have gone south in the 89th minute when the game ended abruptly following a controversial call, causing the police to fire tear gas to disperse protesting supporters.

In a video that later circulated online, which was also obtained by The PUNCH, Adams, who recently returned from Europe and was at the stadium to support his former team, was seen being manhandled by some police officers.

“I can’t believe that really happened to me. They almost killed me just because I saw them assaulting one of the home players and I tried to speak to them that he was a player and not a fan. They just started using their guns and sticks to beat me,” Adams told The PUNCH.

“One of the club’s media personnel was also there, and they didn’t spare him too before taking us to the station.”

Asked whether the assault inflicted injuries that could hamper his career, Adams said, “They beat me like mad again at the station. They almost killed me and the other guys.”

The midfielder also revealed that it was the club’s management that bailed them and took them to the hospital for medical checks.

The media officer, Mobougwu, also corroborated Adams’ account.

“They couldn’t pull out any evidence of me attacking or even protesting. Not until they started hitting Adams with sticks and gun butts.

The club took us to the hospital, and all the medical expenses were covered by the club. I ended up with injuries and still needed to visit the hospital again for further scans,” he said.

The Police Public Relations Officer of the FCT, Josephine Adeh, acknowledged our correspondent’s initial inquiry into the matter last Thursday, promised to get back with information but did not.

She also read subsequent messages sent last Friday and on Wednesday at the time of filing this report.

Adams’ case is not the first involving Nigerian players being brutalised by the police.

In October 2024, former Super Falcons player Maureen Mmadu was defamed, unlawfully arrested and brutalised alongside players of her academy by some men of the Anambra State Police Command.

In 2020, a Remo Stars player, Tiyamu Kazeem, also known as Kaka, met his untimely death in the hands of a policeman from the now-dissolved Special Anti-Robbery Squad, popularly known as SARS, of the Ogun State Command.

Similarly, Joseph Izu, a player of Shooting Stars Sports Club of Ibadan, was killed during a local military operation in Okaki, Ahoada, Rivers State, in October 2016.