Coach Osahon with one of his players
BY DAVID OKECHUKWU
The proprietor of FC Robo Queens, a women football clubside in Lagos State, Nigeria, Emmanuel Osahon, is currently facing tougher times of his life than what he bargained for.
FC Robo Queens, one of the top clubs in the Nigeria Women Football League, has created a niche for itself with its contribution to the women football development in Nigeria, having produced several talented players for the Nigerian national team and a host of professional women clubs across the world.
One of such stars is Asisat Oshoala, FC Barcelona star, Ukpong Esther Sunday, who plays for OKS Stomil Olsztyn, Rasheedat Ajibade, who plays as a forward for Spanish Liga F club Atlético Madrid, Gift Nyakno Monday, a striker with the Spanish Liga F club UDG Tenerife, Chidinma Nkeruka Okeke who is currently with Madrid CFF and a host of others who are all products of the club.
The club has been champions of several local tournaments including the second Betsy Obaseki Women Football Tournament which was held in 2022 in Benin, Edo State, south-south Nigeria, where a whopping N5 million prize was given to the club and the 12th Lagos FA Cup last year. FC Robo Queens were the runners up in the final of Women’s 2021 Aiteo Cup Competition after they were beaten by Bayelsa Queens.
In Abuja, the FC Robo Queens were the champions of 2021 Flying Officer’s Cup after a narrow 1-0 win over Edo Queens in the final decided at the Area 10 sports complex in Abuja.
Despite these array of achievements, informed sources closed to the club confided in this newspaper that all is not well with the club, both physically and spiritually, thanks to the mode of operations adopted by the owner of the club, Emmanuel Osahon and more importantly his lifestyle which has not been helping the club to be run professionally as it should be.
In the ongoing women’s league, FC Robo Queens have reported lost three league games in quick successions.
The owner of the club was a former goalkeeper in the 90s. Osahon was never a standout goalkeeper during his days while he was a goalkeeper with one of the Nigeria men’s premier league clubs. He retired to set up FC Robo Queens, solely run by him.
A huge scandal has emerged in the Nigeria women’s football fraternity as the owner of FC Robo Queens, Osahon, has been accused of alleged sexual harassment by his former players.
The players, who pleaded anonymity to protect them from harassment and intimidation, claimed that owner of the club often slept with members of the team who were girls anytime.Most of the players who played in the team have alleged that they are not on salary payment. One of the former players who played in the team for over six years revealed that they normally contributed money within themselves to carter for the needs of the team for transports and also for feeding.
To buttress their claims, the players queried the rationale behind Osahon, a proprietor of a female football club, marrying two of his players in circumstances that left people in doubt of his intention of setting up the club. “Well as a former player, I didn’t know at first that the team was terrible. I was in the team for close six years, and it was really sad what I saw and I knew. The experience was bad. We were not on salary. No player got paid, we only slept, and we always contributed money within ourselves to buy food sometimes.
“But the whole ugly situation started when Dayo, the goalkeeper got pregnant and everyone knew Mr Osahon was married and he had a daughter who later died and he also had a son, but Dayo’s case was so sad. The pregnancy ended her professional career. Another player who got pregnant by the same Osahon was Oke Maria. She gave birth to a son.
“Other sad experience we players faced in the club was that Osahon was fond of using fetish power. Most times when we wanted to go for a match, he would give us a black soap to bath. He used to tell us that this would enable us to win our matches.
“The most annoying thing was that some players had oaths with him. He would give us things to drink with incantations that we would win our matches. Sometimes we did win, while in some occasions we lost our games.
“This man was also fond of sleeping with his players. Some of the girls loved doing this so that they could feature in all the games, while some were forced to do this without their consents.
“What I am saying is an open secret. Everyone knows he only believes in black power and he always boast that he can buy future and change a player’s future, but the question is why didn’t he change his son’s future or take his son abroad who is a male footballer? Up till now, the boy is just going from one club to another, no future for him.
“On a number of occasions, he had threatened to use his power to deal with us if any of us violated his instructions, with the vow that he would make the world turn into hell for us,” the player narrated with the plead that if Osahon ever know that she was the one leaking the secrets, he will surely kill her.
The players who spoke on the scandal going on at FC Robo Queens pleaded that it is high time Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Nigeria Police can put an end to the atrocities going on in the club.
“The big stick must be wielded now. The NFF and the body handling the Nigeria women’s league have never called Osahon to order. What is going on is known to everybody, even many of the sports journalists know this, but they could not report this. Osahon is not only the known male coach who has destroyed a lot of girls through sexual abuses in Nigerian women’s football. You must wonder how a proprietor of a female team married to two of his players?” the source queried.
