It once happened to our own Daniel Amokachi.Voodoo men performed some magic and Amokachi believed them.

How Amokachi was charmed, conned

He had been injured while still playing in Europe. It was such a bad injury that playing football again seemed difficult. It was at this time, shortly after the 1998 World cup in France, that the Voodoo men asked Amokachi to place an egg in a white handkerchief and crush it. He did and pieces of metal emerged from this action. The Voodoo men told Amokachi that what he had in his hand were the replica of what were in his knee and that detractors conjured them into his body.

And they told him that sacrifices would have to be made to heal his knee so that he can begin to play football again. The sacrifices included parting with money and cars which would be used to appease some gods. He was also to buy goats and fowls for more fetish injunctions. And so began the swindling that cost Amokachi, the Bull of Nigerian football, hundreds of thousands of dollars he earned playing top class football in Europe. It was a sad chapter in his life.

“It can happen to anybody,” Daniel retorted when asked in an interview with Vanguard how he could be so tricked with his tremendous exposure at home and abroad. “I bought the egg and handkerchief and they just asked me to crush it and when I did, pieces of metal appeared on my palm. It was difficult not to believe them,” he explained, repeating “it can happen to anybody if you knew how magical they were.”

Well, Amokachi lost so much money and materials but God has helped him recover mentally and otherwise from the con men. And if Amokachi knows what Togo’s Emmanuel Adebayo is going through at the moment he would be praying for him to first escape from the hostage of his sorcerer before the question of recovery can even arise.

…Adebayo too,

The big news from the British media a few months ago was that of Adebayo ostracising his mother, Alice, and accusing her of some kind of witchcraft that has affected his scoring prowess. The world was shocked but it was no shame to this man who has played for Arsenal, Manchester City, Real Madrid and now Tottenham and who, going by his age, should naturally be waning in his marksmanship.

But the con men made him believe his mother was responsible. And he accused her publicly. He had netted two goals in 12 outings for Tottenham before he went gaga with his accusation.

My brother has been brainwashed –Kola Adebayo

Last November, his elder brother, Kola, 42, a truck driver in Germany had to address the media in Europe to regret that Emmanuel had been brainwashed by “Muslim alfas who told him that our mother was behind his inability to score goals.” Kola said that it was shocking that Emmanuel believed them. And rather than Adebayo struggling to return to shape he allowed himself to be overwhelmed by an imaginary fear of witchcraft.

Adebayo has not even been playing, what more scoring goals. He is more busy fighting imaginary spirits than struggling to return to shape and take up his place. And the fight against the said spirits is costing him money. How helpful it could be for an Amokachi to reach out to this player who, in his own right (apology Atahiru Jega) should be one of the soccer ambassadors from Africa.

Later Adebayo said that his sister, Maggie had also joined the mother in hurting him spiritually. The Muslim alphas (spiritual men), Kola said, convinced Adebayo that Maggie and their mother “were using juju on him.” The Adebayos are of Yoruba ethnic group in Togo. Alice who is in her 60s has remained heartbroken. “Everyday she is crying,” Kola told the Sun on Sunday. Adebayo doesn’t give a hoot and was said to have sent her mother packing from the house in Togo.

He has a mansion in Accra, Ghana, too and spends more time there than in Togo during holidays. He was to tell Peace FM, a radio station in Ghana, his second home “they say I sacked my mother from the house but it’s not true. She decided to leave. How am I going to be in touch with my mother if she is the one telling everybody that my work will not go forward? So, I’ll just be on my own and do my thing. They (his mum and sister) should stop talking and they should stop doing juju on me. They should leave me alone.”

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