The media war between football star, Emmanuel Adebayor and
his family is not getting anywhere close to being settled. His brother, Rotimi
Adebayor who was accused of stealing phones has granted an interview with Sun
Newspaper to tell his own side of the story. Continue…
Now your brother has
a problem with you, which you can remember?
Ah! the Facebook rants. Everyone knows what happened because
he decided to make a mountain out of a molehill. ‘Oro ase ni gbogbo e’ (They
are words spoken out of context)
Are the allegations
levelled against you untrue?
I have my own story as well but ‘Omo ti owo e o ti te eeku
ida ko gbodo bere iku ti o pa baba re’ (A child who is yet to take control of
the sword should not seek reasons for his father’s death)
But you have
apologized to him; did he accept your plea?
No response from him yet. I apologised because he is my
elder brother and we have resolved so settle issues amicably. My elder sister
advised us to bury the hatchet.
You met him at a
training pitch on (Thursday, May 21)…
Yes, we met and he said, ‘Omo Iya ba wo ni’ (My brother how
are you). However, I didn’t play with them because I wasn’t in the mood.
And you didn’t wait
for him after the training.
No, I was there till he left but he didn’t greet me as he
drove off.
He is a superstar
indeed?
I agree, yes he is
And you annoyed him
so much that he made such revelations about you?
Hmh! I can’t explain what happened.
But you know what
happened to the missing 21 phones including play station games from 27 players?
(Smiles) No, 26 players excluding me. ‘Mi o kin se ole’ (I
am not a thief)
Is it because you
cannot steal your own phone?
‘Mi o ji mobile phone, Mo ri he ni’ (I didn’t steal any
mobile phone. I fortuitously found them and picked)
How did it happen and
when?
It was at the FC Metz football Academy in France and I was
14 years old then. My mates were already at the training pitch on that day, so
I was running to meet up with them when I found the mobile phone on the aisle
within the training complex.
So you picked it and
didn’t declare that you found a mobile phone, which belongs to your teammate.
That was the mistake I made and I regretted it thereafter.
Actually I kept it on the table in my room and my roommate wanted to know who
owns the phone because he didn’t have any then. I told him how I found it, and
then he demanded to make use of it. What’s his name?
Kelvin. He is an American and the owner of the phone is from
Asia but from an ‘Arab country’. The ‘Arab’ boy saw the phone with Kelvin and
immediately reported the case to the management of the academy. They informed
my brother about it. He called me to hear my side of the story but I was later
informed to pack my things out of the academy.
What about the
remaining mobile phones you were accused of stealing at the academy?
‘Mo ni mio ja ole se’ (I didn’t steal). I have just
explained what happened.
Your brother has
released three posts on Facebook to paint a bad picture of the family?
It’s really disheartening that such a thing is happening to
us right now. My wife was mocked at the market after the first post Seyi
(Emmanuel Adebayor) published on Facebook. She called me to inform me about
what people are saying. Immediately I logged in and read the post. I felt very
sad.
What did you do
thereafter?
I called him and asked him why he had to do that but he got
angry with me. We had a heated argument on phone, which led to unprintable
words being used freely. As a matter of fact, we quarreled over the phone for
almost two hours.
You hurled insults on
your elder brother who made you and the Adebayor family famous?
Yes I did that because I felt very sad and embarrassed. Then
he made a decision to inflict more insinuations against me.
How?
He called my phone before he released the second post on
Facebook. He asked me to go and read the second posts, which he wanted to
release in 30 minutes.
And…
He did in exactly thirty minutes and before I could log into
my F acebook account, my friends called me to quickly go and read the second
part of my ‘film’.
What film?
The post he released, the second rant against the family.
It’s sad because our mother, who poured her blood on our heads, received the
greatest insult of her life. A woman who suffered so that we can live a good
life is now receiving such a disgraceful accusation.
You mean the
witchcraft allegation?
Yes and all those nonsense things he wrote against me and
our elder sister in Ghana. Well, we have decided to leave it all in God’s hand.
Our mother is a not a witch neither does she practice witchcraft. How can your
mother wish you bad luck? I play football as well and I know that players do
suffer loss of form. He shouldn’t put the blame on anyone.
What happened to
Seyi’s home in Ghana?
He has over 50 houses in Lome and currently lives in
Didjole. He also has some others in Ghana. He has taken custody of everything.
Your mum is back at
where she sells polythene bags, padlocks and other things at the border.
It’s really sad to see her return to a business she left a
long time ago. No one would be happy to see her mum in this sort of situation.
Well, I leave it all in God’s hand. He will judge every situation. ‘Ayanmo ni
gbogbo nkan’ (Destiny will always prevail).
He said that he sent
a huge amount of money to save Peter’s life but alleged that the family
squandered the money?
To be honest, he did. Seyi sent the money but it was
judiciously spent to meet his (Peter’s) health needs. He suffered before he
died.
Some people in Togo
are of the opinion that Peter died as result of the hard substances he used to
inhale?
No, he wasn’t into such but he was hooked on ‘Igbo’ (Indian
hemp), which affected him mentally. He was such great person who also helped
financially to make Seyi achieve his football dream.
And the family didn’t
spend the money very well for his rehabilitation?
No, we did but he died. We lost him in 2013. His death and
our father’s in 2005 are factors that have affected the family in a big way but
I wouldn’t like to be drawn into such issues now.
Continue to read rest of the interview.
3 Comments
He stole phone nah
ReplyDeleteChoi! Their mum is suffering
ReplyDeleteThese guys should reconcile n plan how to take care of their mother
ReplyDelete