Nigeria fans stormed the pitch after their country’s failure to make the 2022 World Cup – tearing down dugouts and clashing with police.
Tear gas was deployed by the authorities at Abuja National Stadium yesterday night after the final whistle prompted an angry pitch invasion.
Clips uploaded onto social media showed fans rushing out of the stands and pushing over dugouts and advertising boards, before being corralled away by police.
Ghana players were forced to run for cover having begun to celebrate their qualification for the Qatar World Cup, with only a small pocket of visiting fans among the 60,000 in the Nigerian capital’s stadium. There were also claims of those supporters being targeted.
Some 20,000 tickets had been given out for free to encourage significant home support for the play-off tie.
After a goalless first leg in Ghana, the Joloff Derby was decided by Thomas Partey’s early strike, with help from an error by Super Eagles goalkeeper Francis Uzoho.
William Troost-Ekong’s penalty drew Nigeria level on the night but the Black Stars saw out their away-goal advantage to qualify, having missed out on the World Cup in Russia four years ago.
The failure to qualify was the Super Eagles’ first since 2006.
Meanwhile, an unnamed official of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the chairman of Ogun State Football Association, Ganiyu Majekodunmi, were reportedly injured during a stampede at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja yesterday.
This comes as Nigeria was preparing for a crucial World Cup qualifying match between Super Eagles and the Ghanaian national team, Black Stars, The Punch reports.
It was learnt that the incident occurred at the VIP entrance gate of the stadium as fans overpowered security operatives to force their way in.
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.
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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 the hell out of me and 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.”
