Nigerian footballer, Oniya collapses, dies in Malaysia

NIGERIAN defender David Faramola Oniya collapsed on the pitch and died after playing just a few minutes of a local friendly in Malaysia on Saturday, reports said.

Oniya, 30, went down about three minutes into the game for T-Team and was pronounced dead at hospital around half-an-hour later, the club`s chief executive told The Star newspaper.

CEO Syahrizan Mohd Zain said Oniya, who was in his first season with second-tier T-Team, had barely touched the ball in the friendly with Super League side Kelantan in Kota Bharu.

“There was no hard running and it was a slow tempo match. It`s only a friendly game,” Syahrizan was quoted as saying.

“The match was called off in the 60th minute when we received a call from the hospital that Oniya had died.”

Deaths on the pitch, often from heart failure, are not unheard of and Belgium lost two players in two weeks in late April and May.

The most prominent case was Cameroon midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe, who collapsed and died while playing a Confederations Cup semi-final against Colombia in Lyon in 2003.

Nigerian footballer, Oniya collapses, dies in Malaysia

JTF discovers cache of arms, ammunition in Warri

By Akpokona Omafuaire

WARRI—THE Joint Task Force, JTF, codenamed Operation Pulo Shield, has recovered arms and ammunition from pirates that attacked its troops on January 8.

It also arrested two suspected illegal bunkerers, rescued kidnapped victim and destroyed several illegal refineries and implements.

This was contained in a statement by Lt Col Ado Isa, Coordinator, Joint Media Campaign Centre.

He said the arms recovery was the result of a cordon and search operations conducted by 146 Battalion of the task force.

Some of the things recovered were one AK 47 rifle with registration number 02430 and butt number 897 and two magazines, loaded with 30 rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition each.

JTF discovers cache of arms, ammunition in Warri