Photo caption: Oluwasegun Olanrewaju
Nigerian boxers have expressed outrage over the continued delay in repatriating the remains of Oluwasegun Olanrewaju from Ghana, 50 days after the fighter’s tragic death following a bout at the Bukom Arena.
The development comes two days after a seven-member committee submitted its final report on the circumstances surrounding Olanrewaju’s death to Ghanaian Minister for Sport and Recreation, Kofi Adams, but with no clear timeline for when the boxer’s body will be returned to his grieving family.
“It just feels like the sports minister does not care about Nigerian boxers, as if we are nothing to them,” professional boxer Taiwo Esepo told our correspondent.
“Because just imagine a Nigerian boxer went out to go and fight and something like this happened, but they are not fighting for the parents so definitely, something is going on.
“Why can’t our authorities sue them? Why can’t they fight for us? This can happen to anyone tomorrow and all these can’t make any Nigerian boxer happy.”
Olanrewaju, popularly known as ‘Success’, collapsed during a bout against Ghanaian boxer Jon Mbanugu at the Trust Sports Emporium Boxing Arena at Bukoum on March 29 and was later pronounced dead at the Korle-Bu Hospital.
UBO Champion Idowu Rasheed, who had previously fought Olanrewaju, shared his distress over the situation.
“He is someone I have fought before and so this really hurt me to the core. When he died, I felt I would quit boxing but I had to come back because this is my profession and way of feeding myself and my family,” Rasheed said.
“And now, we still haven’t seen his body. They said he is dead and they haven’t brought his body for this long and that is not right at all. If he is dead, they should let the family see him and bury him so they can move on. His family and wife need to see him and bury him.”
NBBofC secretary general Remi Aboderin told our correspondent that a meeting was held on Monday but provided no definitive update on when the boxer’s remains would be repatriated.
Commonwealth Games medalist Abdul-Afeez Osoba also expressed his dismay at the prolonged situation.
“I am not even that close to him but I can’t imagine it would have taken this long,” Osoba said.
“I want to believe the NBBofC are on it and discussing with the Ghana Boxing Authority but according to even my religion as a Muslim, he should have been buried immediately. It is not a good thing even for the family and they cannot be happy.”
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