Nigeria’s Under-23 team says Ghana defeat was due to ‘juju’ found in dressing room

The captain of Nigeria’s Under-23 football team, Kingsley Udoh, has attributed the defeat his men suffered in the hands of Ghana to charms popularly known as ‘juju’ it found in the dressing room at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi.

The Vanguard publication of Nigeria on July 13, 2011 reports that the captain alleges that African charms (juju) were discovered in their dressing room, prior to their All Africa Games final qualifying match against Ghana’s Black Meteors at the Baba Yara Sports Complex on Sunday July 10, 2011.

Ghana scored two unanswered goals in the match and by that margin kicked Nigeria out of contention in the competition scheduled for Maputo. Nigeria had a 3-1 advantage over Ghana from the first leg match

“We were not in the match because some of us were not able to handle the horrific scenes that we saw when we entered the dressing room. I am not making excuses for our loss but when we were made to enter the dressing room, we saw charms, and imagine the kind of feelings or fears that could generate for young chaps like us”, the publication quoted Udoh as saying to reporters.

“Juju may not be working in sports but the fear of it could disorientate some people and I felt some people lost it to fear because of what they saw in the dressing room,” he added.

By Ekow Quandzie