Former soccer stars, Etim Esin and Austin Okocha, are locked in a messy battle.
By Blessing Ogunli
With celebration wafting in the air, Etim Esin, television pundit and sometime star of Nigerian football, set off for the home of Austin ‘Jay-Jay’ Okocha, former skipper of the Super Eagles, on the last Christmas day. Accompanied by his wife and daughter, Esin arrived at Okocha’s home in the highbrow Opebi area of Lagos. The Esins joined other select friends of Okocha, who had been invited for the Christmas party.
But the joy of the occasion would become tarnished, according to Esin, by an allegation that he was the one who stole a phone that was declared missing at the party. The incident was kept under wraps until sometime last month, when Esin granted a press interview in which he alleged that Okocha embarrassed him by naming him as the prime suspect of the phone theft. He claimed that he and his wife were subjected to a thorough search on Okocha’s instructions.
The search, he added, did not yield the phone, but Okocha failed to apologise for what happened. “I am disappointed Okocha has not called to apologise to me personally, after embarrassing me and having my wife’s bag searched because a phone was missing. My wife was crying from the humiliation and I want justice,” Esin said.
In his search for justice, Esin has instructed feisty Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo, to commence legal actions against Okocha. In a letter to the ex-international, Esin is asking for N100 million for aggravated damages, a public apology in a nationally circulated newspaper within seven days or face legal action for defamation. But in his response, Okocha claimed that it was not his phone that was missing and that he was not at home when the alleged theft occurred. He stated that when he got wind of the incident, he ordered that the search be halted and apologise to his guest.“I personally apologised to Etim (Esin). I told him there and then how sorry I was for what happened,” Okocha said. He, however, added that he is ready to face Esin in court. Esin has never managed to maintain a safe distance from controversy. His playing career was short, but colourful. While his immense skills won him adulation and provoked not exactly inaccurate comparisons with Argentina’s Diego Maradona, his life off the pitch infuriated many and stymied his progress. He was a headline grabber, more for his misdemeanours than for playing. A few months before the 1987 World Youth Championship in Chile, he sneaked out of camp and got shot by armed robbers in Lagos. He got well in time for the tournament, but was not in top shape, as Nigeria crashed out in the first round. He later moved to Lierse of Belgium for a professional career, through which many hoped he would develop into a world beater. But in Belgium, he got into a fresh jam when he was accused of raping a white lady. He fled the country and returned to Nigeria, where he signed for a local clubside. His demons followed him, as he slipped into drug use from which his career never recovered.
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