Monday, 18 March 2019

Exclusive News, Features, Interviews,Politics and Sports: TheTaiwo Ogunjobi I knew….by Ayo Ademokoya...

Exclusive News, Features, Interviews,Politics and Sports: TheTaiwo Ogunjobi I knew….





by Ayo Ademokoya

...
: The Taiwo Ogunjobi I knew…. by Ayo Ademokoya  Apart from the fact that we both came from Ilesha, I was privileged to see Tai...
The Taiwo Ogunjobi I knew….






by Ayo Ademokoya



 Apart from the fact that we both came from Ilesha, I was privileged to see Taiwo Ogunjobi played in the colour of IICC Shooting stars when it was glorious in the 1980’s together with my dad who was an ardent fan of Water Corporation.

He was someone I so admired as player and highly revered as an administrator having watched him a afar of as the secretary to Chief Femi Olukanmi back then.
I remember his few exploit as the Sole administrator of Shooting stars in the mid 1990’s before he left for Gabros and became a cult figure at the Nigerian Football Association where he served as the Secretary General.
Our path eventually crossed between 2011 and 2012 when I was working on my book on shooting stars . Of course he recognised me as a sports analysist and a sport presenter with Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State .

 We had a deal and we met at Kabiru Abubakar aka  Zamora’s office at the Liberty stadium.
I did my part and the rest is history . Since then He will stop and say ‘Adeeee.. bawo ni?’  in his usual cool, calm and collected voice.

I won’t want to go in to much details about what transpired between us but whatever that must have happened I see it as the handiwork of God  and it actually pained me to the marrow when I heard of his demise on the wee hours of that fatemoful morning in  February , I was shocked beyond marrow and could not mutter a word wnhe Tunde Shamshudeen confirmed his death and I promised to do my own part , which I did at his funeral for three days in Ibadan between the 13th  to 15th of  March 2019. Eni to se oju,  ko dabi eni to se ehin.

Of course, I was a bit disappointed with the way and manner the Symposium at the Lekan Salami went last week Wednesday though we still must give kudos to Barrister Seyi Akinwunmi and the Oyo FA for the initiative .

Nevertheless, I had thought of a situation where speakers at the event would focus on the life and times of  Ogunjobi both on and off the field instead of making it a platform to clarify dead issues with one another. It was turning political so I decided to drop the microphone as co anchor-man of the event and hear the politics of Nigerian football! Alas it was one sided.

I only hope this piece would inform people about the Ogunjobi that I knew.
I won’t talk about his tenure as the Secretary General of NFA because that one has been over-flogged at the seminar which I later understand to have been organised by the West Nigeria Football Federation or the NFF led by the Vice chairman of the federation.

How I wish Shooting stars did organise something independently for  the man whose achievement is only second to that of Chief Lekan Salami,the founder of Shooting Stars himself but I hope in the next one year players of shooting stars and those he had actually touched their lives would come together to eulogise Ogunjobi at his one year memorial lecture.

No club chairman in the history of Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi could boast of his achievement in making shooting stars the brands everyone loves to associate with today

I may not know how Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi started his playing career but all I know back then was that he left African Church Grammar School Ilesa to begin a new life in Ibadan and between 1968 to 1972

   1) In the early 1970’s he was the best player at African church Grammar School, Ilesa doing his O' level

   2 )    He  was spotted as a good player for African Church Grammar School and was admitted to do Higher School certificate (HSC) at Ibadan Grammar school sometimes in 1973 and from there he shone like a star playing alongside people like Zion Ogunfeyinmi, stober,  Okoro etc…

   3)    Ibadan grammar school back then was a football school. And I think from their he played for Nigeria at the sports festival as a junior international held in Ghana in 1974 tagged Nigeria Ghana Sports festival together with after performing brilliantly as an  Academicals Adokiye  Amesimaka

  4)      He played briefly for IICC Shooting stars between 1974- 75 and

  5)    won a scholarship to Clemson University in North Carolina  that was why he missed out of the victorious IICC shooting star squad of 1976 . 
      Let me brief you about Clemson University.  Clemson University’s budget on sport is so huge that every sports talented young men either in America or outside America wants to attend.

Ogunjobi shone like star as a midfielder wining laurel for them the top scorer then was Christian Nwokocha  and later his brother joined him Nnamdi Nwokocha.

Till now if you go to the Hall of fame Clemson University in North Carolina you will picture of Taiwo Ogunjobi he was a cult hero there.

The Robable Starters the school team of Clemson in   1977  were the
ACC Champs  and NCAA Quarterfinalist Ranked Fourth in Final Poll

With players like
G John Bruens, JR (17) 29 Saves B Mark Alphonso, SR (11) 0g 0a B Damian Odoh, SO (16) 1g 0a B Charles Headlam, SR (16) 0g 0a B Eric Smith, SR (16) 1g 1a M Benedict Popoola, JR (16) 11g 5a M Taiwo Ogunjobi, JR (16) 7g 2a M Marwan Kamaruddin, SO (15) 11g 6a M Emmanuel Egede, JR (12) 4g 3a M Damian Ogunsuyi, JR (12) 6g 5a S Godwin Ogbueze, JR (13) 11g 4a S Christian Nwokocha, JR (13) 10g
They achieved greatness for Clemson inuversity . In actual fact there were 6 Nigerians in the line up


   6)    Another thing you don’t know was that Taiwo Ogunjobi was a  mentor to the current senate Leader in the United.
 The norms in the school was that when a foreign students arrives they hands them over for integration purposes to the older Nigerians and Dr Bukola Saraki wthen came to Duke University in North Carolina before he left for the United kingdom and stayed for a while with Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi to mentor him.

   7)    He came back to Nigeria and rejoined IICC Shooting stars in 1979/ 1980 and because of his antecedent as a player who had a stint with IICC in 1974 he became the skipper, a very dedicated skipper till the end of his career as a footballer. He won the League for IICC Shooting stars in 1980 under the auspices of late coach Jossy Lad.

  8)    He was loyal, so loyal to IICC Shooting stars to the point that when Carpet Royal owners of Leventist United tempted every Shooting Stars players with cash and their product, Taiwo Ogunjobi refused to be tempted and rejected all juicy offers from John Mastroudes the owner of Carpet Royal and founder of  Leventis United whose sole. He prefer to stay loyal to the club that brought him to limelight instead of material incentives. He told me personally that , ‘ Good name is better than Gold and silver’

  9)    His loyalty to the club paid off as he won the league again with Shooting stars in 1983 and went on to play in the finals of the Champions League only for him to lose to Zamalek of Egypt on the 12 of December 1984


  10)                       In 1984 when Shooting stars lost to Zamalek ( the Balun balu ntafin saga),  the entire team was disbanded by the Miltary Governor of Oyo state Colonel Oladayo Popoola, who gave a directive that every player who so desire to don the jersey of IICC again should re apply, this was an insult to many players who felt aggrieved for the kind of treatment metted to them and as professionals moved on to another clubs that desperately needed their services at that time. Players Best Ogedegbe. Mudashiru lawal, Rashidi Yekini and host left for Abiola babes while others moved to Inwuanyawun Nationale. Ogunjobi re,aine loyal to IICC and moved to the office. He was still in Ibadan when the team got relegated for the first time  in 1985 / 86 under the Ademola Adesina who was the captain of the team

  11)                       As a football administrator , Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi  was the secretary to chief olukanmi and recruited beautiful players  like Lateef Yussuf, David Aigbovo, Tarila Okorowanta, Golden Ajeboh, Isiaka Awoyemi blend them with experienced players like  Ogbein Fawole, Dotun Alatishe and of  course Chief Felix Owolabi to win the maiden edition of the Conferderation Cup competition or Abiola Cup

   12)                        As  Sole administrator between 1994 to 1997   with players like Ajibade Babalade, Lateef Yusuf, Duke udi Ogaga Agoye, Sanni Abacha, Sam Pam, Kalu Umar, Patrick Mancha, Gbenga Okunowo, he won the doubles both the FA Cup and the Nigerian Professional league.  As well get to the final of the champions league in 1996 losing the same Zamalek of Egypt that denied him the trophy as a player in 1984

In fact he was another great achiever for Shooting stars next to chief Lekan Salami as an administrator of Shooting stars

  13)                       He lost the African Champions Cup as a player and nearly won it in 1996 losing it as an administrator to the same Zamalek of Egypt in 1996

  14)                       He has helped so many footballers and revived or laid a solid foundation for their coaching career. People like Baba Amusa Adisa, (goalkeeper trainer of the Nigerian Super Eagle)  Duke Udi Osun United ,  Samson Siasia,  Edith Agoye (Ila United) and host of others owes Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi a lot when it comes to their blossoming coaching career.

  15)                       I can go on and on to talk about many players Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi managed their career right from obscurity to international stardom.

As I said I deliberately would not talk about his exploit at the National and international level, Gabros International, Prime FC now Osun United, Osun state FA and lately Ijesha Warrior which I was beginning to see as his pet project before his demise.

Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi is gone right now and we can testify to how much he affected the nation, his states, his immediate community and lives of people home and abroad.

‘Arise larika , arika ni baba iregun…

We that are alive today, the question is,  what have would they  say about us when we have finally gone to the world beyond?


Friday, 18 January 2019

I accepted Remo stars job to challenge myself.....
By Ayo Ademokoya
(Watch the video)

Kennedy Boboye the 45 year old coach who helped Plateau United cliched their first ever Nigerian Professional football league title in 2017-2018 league season has revealed the reason behind his move to the newly promoted side.

The vibrant coach who left Plateau United at the expiration of his 2 year contract on October 2018 said that he loves challenges and coming to Remo stars would give him such adventure has he had noticed that with him the team has brighter future.

He however thanked the management of Remo stars for giving him the opportunity to coach the newly promoted side

Remo stars begins their campaign against another newly promoted Bendel Insurance on Sunday 20th of Jnauary 2019 at the Gateway international stadium, Shagamu Ogun state
Why we employed Kennedy Boboye... GM, Remo stars
by Ayo Ademokoya

The General Manager of Remo Stars, Lookmon Ogungbefun.. has revealed to Aroka TV why former Plateus United Chief Coach Kennedy Boboye was hired.

 He said this this afternoon at the gateway stadium Shagamu while speaking with Aroka TV led by Ayo Ademokoya during the unveiling of the the coach..

'We settled for Kennedy Boboye because we saw the need to reinforce the team.
We got in more new players and we also saw the need to reinforce the technical crew  and that’s where  Boboye came to mind


Kennedy is young and vibrant and he has the experience at the continental level and we believe the club could b could make use of his vast experience which tally’s with our aspiration. We always look forward to having people who wants to do great thing with us and we believe Boboye is ready for such challenge'
Just watch the exclusive interview

Tuesday, 15 January 2019


Gbongan   Money ritualists already charged to court…. Odoro, Osun PPRO,

By Ayo Ademokoya

Osun State Police Public Relation officer, Folashade Odoro has sent a note of warning to Nigerians to be their brother’s keeper penultimate to the rampant stories of ritual killings which is in vogue right as they have devised other sophisticated means for their operations.

Speaking to our correspondent during a telephone interview recently concerning the issues the  Ileesu compound of Idifa , Ayedaade local government Osun state of Nigeria den of  suspected money ritualist led by one by ‘Ganiyu’ which was busted by the highly intelligent Osun state police sometimes in July 2017, DSP   Odoro  confirmed the incidence but  decline to speak further about the  issue since according to her  some of the culprit apprehended are already  charged to court and talking about it will amount to contempt .

However she further revealed that her boss, the Commissioner of  Police in Osun state,  Fimihan Adeoye has earlier addressed a press conference in the first  week  of January, 2019 where he assured  indigenes of Osun State about the commitment of his command in ensuring total safety before during and after the forthcoming election as well as curb the nefarious activities of the men of the underworld but warned indigenes to be extra careful in the new year.

 Meanwhile, more facts had emerged when Daily Sun decide to re- visited the much talked about ritualist den  busted by the highly intelligent Nigerian Police force, Osun state Command ,   located  and Operated by a middle aged man known as ‘Ganiyu’ at Ileesu, compound, Idi- Ifa , Ayedaade local Government, Gbongan  of Osun state, sometimes in July 2017 when stories of ritualist caught with  women under wears apparently for the use of money ritual began to trend on the social media recently which more sophisticated than the normal kidnapped of human being in commercial buses and other means.

Some eye witnesses who prefer anonymity revealed to our correspondent that it is true the men of the underworld operated in their neighbourhood without the knowledge of anyone probably due to the fact that their victims are majorly non indigene brought in of the quiet town of Gbongan  from Ife, Ikire, Ilesha, Oshogbo and even Ibadan to avoid suspicion since we never really recorded cases of missing persons in the town

Apart from using diabolical means to hypnotise there victims before they were abducted, rumour had it that they even had substances injected into their bodies to make them unconscious’ they continued as they took our correspondent to  one of the arrested suspect  popularly called ‘Ayelala’ (not real name)  and his son that was mistakenly apprehended by  the police but later released after two months in police custody having  confirmed innocent based on the extensive and comprehensive  investigation conducted also corroborated the story and also thank the police for the yeoman’s job in getting to the roots of the matter despite the harrowing experience him and his son went through before the truth were eventually revealed.

 ‘We never suspect anything since we never had cases of missing persons in Gbongan so we believe that there victims are often brought in from the neighbouring towns. Not until when arrested Ganiyu the ring leader of the group was arrested while some of his members were still at large only then we heard that some human parts were also recovered from the building which was so shocking to us. It true that we often seen luxurious cars parked close to the building and ‘Big men’ come and go in the dead of the night; we never really suspect any foul play though we often had foul smell emanating from the build but we not knowing that an abattoir where human part were dismembered and sold for whatever purpose to various customers without our knowledge since Gbongan is known for a very peaceful and accommodating town.


 


Pictures 1-4 The 'den' where Ganiyu carries out his nefarious act

5) Ayo Ademokoya  the reporter who revisited the story in front of the den