By Jacob Ajom

On the eve of the World Cup playoff second leg tie between Nigeria and Ghana, expectations among Nigerian football fans were high. The government of the federation instructed civil servants in the Federal Capital Territory to close work at 1 pm. As if that was not enough, the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development provided free buses to ferry fans to the Moshood Abiola national Stadium.

Tickets were shared freely to some lucky fans while the gates were flung open as early as 1 pm. In all this, the intention was to give the Super Eagles all the support they needed to beat Ghana.

As expected, the stadium was full to capacity. The sixty-something thousand capacity stadium may have taken in more than it can take as most spectators remained standing throughout the match.

I entered the Moshood Abiola stadium through the VIP entrance. We were made to stand still for long because the soldiers and policemen who were standing guard had cordoned off the whole VIP section. News was that President Mohammadu Buhari was coming. A young girl who wanted to prove stubborn and tried to explain why she must get into the stadium before kick-off was almost swept off her feet and asked to ‘shut up’ or have herself to blame.

She obeyed and was quietened when she saw one of the security personnels wielding a gun at her. Meanwhile, the match had kicked off and the fans roared inside the arena. We were all restive and agitated yet muted.

Just as we were all waiting, a long queue of vehicles – cars and security vans – supposedly from the State House made their way towards the VIP entrance. “Nobody should move an inch,” a voice rang out with an air of finality.

There we stood until the long convoy passed through into the VIP lounge. When we were eventually allowed to go in, it was an ugly scene as it resulted in a stampede. I was caught in it. I feared I was going to die because at some point as we were struggling to go into the stadium, I couldn’t breathe again. Knowing that such scenes had resulted in deaths, I feared for my life. I was suspended in the air. I was virtually pushed in by forces beyond my comprehension. In the end, the only tool I had to work with, my laptop hanging behind my back was destroyed because of the pressure.

I must confess that because the window glasses were tinted, I could not confirm the identity of the occupants and I was too far from the cars when the occupants alighted.

Whether President Buhari was among the VIP guests remains to be known as there was no official announcement welcoming him to the arena. However, Arise TV has actually said he came at half time and disrupted movements.

The security arrangement caused a lot of chaos as spectators who wanted to enter the stadium through that entrance were hindered. 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.

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.com 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, “While 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.

“The zeal to work has disappeared and I don’t know where to start. I just hope we don’t record any casualties

“Organisation 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.”