By Rasheed Adewuyi
Former 3Sc forward Ochuko Otis has lambasted the Oyo State government, calling it a fraud for failing to fulfill the promises made to 3SC players 25 years ago.
Ochuko, alleged that 25 years after helping the Ibadan-based team to win the premier league title and the WAFU cup, the state has failed to redeem the landed properties promised to the players by the then military governor of the state, Adore Oyakhire.
Speaking on behalf of the 1998 set of 3SC, Ochuko fumed: “Justice must be served to all the players that suffered to write the name of this great club in the history books. Governor Oyakhire gave us the certificate of occupancy (C of O) before he left office, while governor Lam Adesina cunningly took the documents from us immediately after he assumed office.
“Lam Adesina told us that most lands were not properly surveyed. They said they wanted to restructure the land. That was the trick they used. In a civilized world, it is stealing by trick. CNN and BBC are ready to interview me on this issue. We will not relent until they give us our land and the one million naira they promised each player.”
The former Julius Berger FC of Lagos player said if the administrators knew what he and his teammates went through to achieve this goal, they would not hold on to their properties for 25 years.
“I did seven operations when I was in 3SC. I ended my career at the club due to injuries. I was always playing with injections that would last for 2 to 3 hours to enable me to help the team score goals. Other players also had injury problems, but we didn’t allow that to stop us from winning trophies for the club,” he said.
Sports Joust reliably gathered that the late Elder Bode Oyewole, former 3SC sole administrator the players gave the power of Attorney, could not solve the problem before passing away.
When contacted, Taiwo Adisa, the Chef Press secretary to the Oyo state governor Seyi Makinde, referred Sports Joust to the commissioner for sports adding that: “He is the right person to answer your questions. I am not a sports person.”
Pius Daniel, Mojeed Azeez, Daniel Ukar, and Dimeji Adenekan of blessed memories were part of the team.
