FAMILY OF FOOTBALL LEGEND, RASHIDI YEKINI ANGRY

IMMORTALISE YEKINI WITH
TESTIMONIAL MATCH
RASHIDI YEKINI MUSEUM
STATUTE OF THE FOOTBALL ICON

Emmanuel Ukudolo

Lagos, May 25, 2016 – Nigeria’s football icon, Rashidi Yekini continues to live on even after his demise. His daughters are angry that till date nobody knows how their father died. The daughters, Yemisi(21) and Yemi(18) who spoke on a radio programme in Lagos said no autopsy was performed on their late father.

Yemisi who is based in London said all her mother told her was that his father is dead but that she does not know how he died. She said her dad was not sick before he died and that she spoke to him two weeks before news of his death filtered into town and wondered why his father would die and just be buried without a closure on how he died.
She also said she personally called her father when she heard in faraway London that he is mentally deranged and walking the street barefooted.

“ I called him, I usually call him twice a week, Wednesday and Sunday around 6 pm in the evening and he told me he is fine”, he said.

They are also angry that that their father was abandoned after he died and that nothing was done in his memory. She said Yekini has done a lot to uplift football in Nigeria.

The family is demanding a testimonial match in honour of their late father and that his house in Ibadan be converted into a Rashidi Yekini Museum with all his booths, shirts and all the personal effects he had while playing for Nigeria. A similar museum now stands at Gbemisola Street, Ikeja, in honour of Afrobeat Legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti. She described her father as a very nice person that took good care of her and her siblings when they are together.

The family is also agitating for a statute of Rashidi Yekini to be erected in Ibadan and an estate named after the football icon.
The family is not happy about media reports concerning the condition of the family. They were furious that the media had painted them as miserly people who have been left in abject poverty.

Also speaking, lawyer to the football Icon, Barrister Jubril Olanrewaju said reports that Yekini’s mother is suffering is nothing but false. According to him, the football legend left a building with several flats and boys quarters for the mother and that four years ago, rent from the building was in excess of N500, 000 per annum.

He also explained why Yekini was crossed with her mother before he died. According to him, Yekini rejected a baby from a girl who claimed to be pregnant for Yekini but that his mother had then sent him to pacify Yekini to accept the baby on the belief that the more the merrier. He said he had advised the lady to go for DNA test and that now that Yekin is dead, he is not willing to accept the questionable baby unless the alleged concubine consents to DNA test.

The family also spoke in defence of the lawyer whom they said has been very close to the family in terms of meeting their needs.
“Each time I need anything, my mum would call him and he answers our request”, Yemisi and Yemi said on radio.

Yekini died May 4, 2012. He was 48. He has started his career at UNTL Kaduna in 1981. He also played for Shooting Stars, Abiola Babes, Africa Sports, Victoria Setubal, Olympiacos, Sporting Gijon, Zurich, Bizerte, Al-shabab, Africa Sports, Julius Berger and Gateway FC. He made 253 appearance for club and national team scoring a total of 164 goals.