NRA Chieftain Mourns Dead Referee, Explains How It Happened

The South/West zonal Coordinator of Nigeria Referee Association (NRA) Chief James Odeniran has condoled with the Lagos State Referee Council and the family of Basit Giwa who died during the 2015 Football Referee’s Fitness Test held at the Lekan Salami Sports Complex Adamasingba Ibadan over the weekend.

While reacting to the ugly incident, the retired FIFA referee who doubles as the Chairman of Oyo State Football Association explained how the organiser of the event did everything humanly possible to avert the tragedy, but described Giwa’s death as a predestined occurrence by God.

“We took every precautionary measure before the fitness test was conducted, and that was by ensuring that every participant undergo a complete medical examination and Basit Giwa was certified fit to participate, he passed his ECG, and blood pressure test very well.

“He passed the fitness test by completing the race within the stipulated time only for his health to develop issues moment after
the exercise and he was rushed to the nearby clinic with the standby ambulance.

“It was few minutes after he was admitted into the emergency ward that he passed on, I pray God give his family and Lagos State Referee Council and the NRA fortitude to bear Irreparable loss”, Odeniran noted.

The Nationwide referee has been buried according to Islamic rite by his family in Lagos on Tuesday.

It would be recalled that two referees: Olatunde Oyetola of Oyo State Referee Council and Matthew Faloye from Ogun State slumped and died during a Cooper test in Abuja in 2011.