The Management of Plateau United Football Club of Jos has denied reports making the rounds that their supporters attacked centre referee, Sam Agba, during the Nigeria Professional Football League matchday one tie against Ifeanyi Uba of Nnewi at the new Jos Stadium on Sunday.
The club through its Media Officer, Albert Dakup, said the report was not only baseless, but a calculated attempt aimed at tarnishing the image of the club and General Manager, Pius Henwan.
Dakup explained that immediately after the match when angry fans attempted to invade the pitch in an attempt to gain access to the match officials, security agents including the Special Task Force in the state code-named “Operation Safe Haven” were at hand to restore normalcy and even escorted the centre referee and other match officials to the dressing room.
He noted that the General Manager of the Club and the Chairman, Plateau State Football Association (PFA) Sunday Longbap not only assisted the match officials to get to the dressing room safely, they also made sure the match officials left the stadium unharmed.
“Plateau Utd wondered why the authors of the malicious reports peddled around cannot verify issues and separate fact from fiction before going to press.
“Apart from ensuring that match officials left the stadium unharmed, the General Manager of the club also ensured that they got to their hotel safely and personally saw them off to their various destinations on Monday morning”, he explained.
According to him, “Plateau United is a law-abiding club and will not indulge in acts capable of bringing the Nigeria Professional Football League or Nigerian Football to disrepute.
“It is on record that since they got promotion back to the top flight three years ago, no any match official(s) have been molested either at the Rwang Pam Stadium or the new Jos stadium.
“Plateau Utd wish to challenge the authors of the reports to produce evidence of the assault on the referee and the hospital he was admitted to buttress their facts.”
The Club said it regard the report as a ploy to distract the team from attaining its target this season and urge members of the public, especially soccer fans to disregard the baseless report which is aimed at destroying the club’s reputation.
He assured of the Club’s continuous support for the good work of the League Management Company and the Nigeria Football Federation in reposition football in the country.
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