Abia Warriors Football Club of Umuahia has renewed their appeal to the League Management Company (LMC) to relocate the week 2 Glo Premier League encounter with El-Kanemi Warriors from Maiduguri to another venue for security reasons.
In a Save-Our-Soul (SOS) letter signed by the secretary of Abia Warriors FC, Mr. Oliver Ndife and sent to the chief operating officer, of LMC, Salihu Abubakar, Abia Warriors referred to their earlier correspondence on the matter which had not received an answer and urged the LMC to relocate the week 2 encounter in order to secure the lives of officials and players who would attend the game.
“Our position on this matter is borne out of pressure from the families and friends of our players and officials who are refusing to let their loved ones travel for the match for fear of being attacked en route to the venue of the match”, the letter read in part.
It continued: “Even though it could be argued that security would be provided in Maiduguri town, our club’s fear is, what happens in transit, say between Abuja and Maiduguri.”
The club recalled the renewed killings of innocent people in the state in recent times, including the killing of several football fans at a viewing centre in the Ajilari area of the state as well as the audacious invasion of a village in Maiduguri by members of a dreaded sect in military camouflage during which more than 39 people who were preparing for prayers were gruesomely murdered.
The club, therefore, urged the LMC to hasten action and relocate the week 2 action from Maiduguri to a venue where the safety of players and officials would be guaranteed
