Mabo wants Presidency to stop Super Eagles, DR Congo friendly over Ebola

Former Super Falcons coach, Ismaila Mabo wants the Federal Government to stop the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) from going ahead with the friendly match between the Super Eagles and DR Congo following Ebola outbreak, which has killed over 19 people in the East African country and 39 suspected cases reported by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Speaking with The Guardian yesterday, Mabo, who played for the Green Eagles, said it would amount to ‘putting the lives of millions of Nigerians at risk’ to allow the NFF go ahead with the match slated for May 28 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

“I don’t see any reason why the NFF will want to go ahead with the friendly match against DR Congo despite the increasing death rate over the outbreak of Ebola in that country.

It seems the NFF doesn’t want to learn a lesson from what happened in 2014, when the Federal Government had to spent billions of naira to contain the disease. We even lost one of our best medical doctors in the process.

“I am really worried that officials of the NFF could be preaching such a gospel that precautionary measures had been put in place to forestall transmission of the deadly disease into Nigeria. That should not be the case.

What the NFF should do is to write an apology letter to the FA in DR Congo telling them that they (NFF) don’t want to risk the lives of Nigerians. Must the NFF play politics in everything?” Mabo queried.

Another ex-international, former Green Eagles goalkeeper, Emmanuel Okala, told The Guardian yesterday that officials of the NFF should be held responsible ‘if anything happens to any Nigerian’ in the cause of the match against DR Congo.