Police authorities in Lagos said yesterday that claims by Newcastle striker, Obafemi Martins that he was shot at by unknown gunmen last Monday were not true and the only report they received was from his driver who reported that he himself was the one attacked.
Obafemi Martins
The Command Public Relations Officer, Mr. Bode Ojajuni said Martins gave an inaccurate account of the incident to the public.
Mr Ojajuni said:
“On the said day, one Mr. Femi Onipede who claimed to be a driver to the soccer star called the Police at Victoria Garden City (VGC) to report that he was in a hospital after being attacked by unknown gun men. He said that he went out in search of diesel with an unnamed friend around 1am and that when they got near Alesh Hotel in Ajah, a vehicle hit their mercedez benz M500 with registration number BD 900 BDG“He told police that he came down from the vehicle after switching off the engine only for the occupants of the car that hit them to start firing at them. He said he was hit in the shoulder by one of the bullets before he ran away from the scene. After reporting the incident, policemen were detailed to the scene and when they got there, they recovered the car.
“When the Divisional Police Officer in-charge of the station learnt that the vehicle belongs to Obafemi Martins, he quickly went to the family house where he met the Mother of the striker, Madam Martins who told him that his son was sleeping and would not like to be disturbed.
He therefore dropped his telephone numbers with the mother so that he would call him as soon as he woke up. The following morning around 10am, Obafemi Martins personally called the DPO and thanked him for all the help his boys rendered to his driver during the incident. He also appealed that his car should be released to him to enable him carry out repairs promising that he would personally see the DPO when he returns from his overseas trip.
“Based on this plea, the car was released to him on bond. From the account of this, it is obvious that Obafemi Martins was not in the car when the driver was shot at. The driver’s account raised a lot of questions like why was he looking for diesel around 1am, who was the friend he claimed was with him when he was shot at etc. The whole thing is still a puzzle but from all indications, Martins was not the victim but his driverâ€.
This is all very puzzling. We did write a piece on Martins earlier this week saying that Big Sam has to talk to Martins and ensure his personal life is OK. This will only add to Sam’s concern but as we have already expressed – we think Sam is the perfect manager to sort this out with Oba. Oba is lucky to have Sam as his new manager.
If this indeed proves to be true – the question will be why would Oba do this? It’s a mystery to us.
Comments welcome.
8 comments so far
Pete
Jun 22, 2007 at 9:33 AM
Comment #1lol, this fella has serious mental problems.
You know he is a big time gangstah! from Africa 🙂
Seriously, why would he want to lie about this? Out looking for diseal at 1AM… sounds like he was up to mischeif somewhere.
chris
Jun 22, 2007 at 9:47 AM
Comment #2whats wrong with with looking for diseal at 1am? maybe he jsut arrived and had to drive to someplace to stay lol:P
chris
Jun 22, 2007 at 9:47 AM
Comment #3oh and he ran out of diseal
Tony_D
Jun 22, 2007 at 10:00 AM
Comment #4It wouldn’t surprise me if it was all made up by Oba, for some reason known only to himself ( probably money) he doesn’t want to play for his country.
Ed Harrison
Jun 22, 2007 at 10:33 AM
Comment #5It’s all very strange – maybe the truth will come out in next day or two – but Sam needs to take him under his wing.
Morountodun
Jun 22, 2007 at 12:24 PM
Comment #6For a long time Martins prevaricated about playing for Nigeria now that he has played a few international games he seems to be seeking a way out (if these reports are true). It might be time for him to move to another club, Arsenal perhaps?
Ahmed Bilal
Jun 22, 2007 at 1:31 PM
Comment #7This is why I don’t trust the media.
Has any of you considered the possibility that the quotes from Martins or even those from the police report (Ed, where’s the link to this article? seeing the source could help judge if its reliable or not) are false?
Someone got some quotes from Martins and his mum, and then twisted them and pitched them ahead to make it sound like he was in the car.
Or is this a coverup to protect Martins?
Whatever it is, the whole situation is muddled up precisely because we don’t know who to trust – and in such situations, you either dig deep enough to find out, or you stop caring.
Keep Oba
Jun 22, 2007 at 2:16 PM
Comment #8I like how people might believe Nigerian police. I wouldn’t trust anything that comes out of that oil soaked thiefdom. Hopefully we can keep oba (yes i know the irony) and maybe Nigeria can kick him off like they did mikel jon obi and we wouldn’t have to lose Oba during the African Cup. And if people think Oba is messed up…well at least he hasn’t shoved a lit cigar into a teammate’s eye. We paid good money for that problem.