It was a day of deep mourning on Saturday, 23 November, 2013, as the remains of 17-year old Friday Njengo, a member of the U-17 National Team, Golden Eaglets, were committed to mother earth in his hometown, Kaltungo in Gombe State.
The journey began on Friday with officials of the Nigeria Football
Federation,NFF, and some family members taking possession of the corpse
from the National Hospital, Abuja.
The delegation to Gombe was led by Member of the NFF Executive
Committee, Alhaji Yusuf Ahmed Fresh, and included Chairman of the
Gombe State Football Association, Alhaji Auwalu Musa Umar, Vice
Chairman of Gombe FA, Mohammed Manzo, NFF Chief Technical Officer, Mr.
Rafiu Yusuf, Eaglets’ Head Coach, Coach Manu Garba, Eaglets’ Team
Administrator Tayo Egbaiyelo, Gombe State FA Secretary, Mallam Ahmed
Sada, Mallam Munir Tijani Shittu of NFF Media Unit and some officials
of Gombe and Bauchi State Football Associations.
After a brief stop at the house of late Njengo’s uncle, Mr. Mikah
Kumat, Idayan Kaltungo, the delegation headed to the palace of the
Emir of Kaltungo, Engineer Saleh Mohammed, with the Chairman of
Kaltungo Local Government having joined the train.
The Emir, who is also the Vice Chairman of the Gombe State Council of Chiefs, was actually at the National Hospital, Abuja to see the player on his sick bed before his demise.
It was wailing and tears all through as the boy’s remains were
committed to mother earth later in the day.
Friday Njengo, who was a regular in the Eaglets’ squad before an auto
accident on 3 February, 2013 on his way to Calabar for the team’s first
phase of final camping ahead of the 2013 African U-17 Championship in
Morocco, attended various schools in Bauchi, Kaduna and Kaltungo, and
was a member of the Yarma Light Football Academy before his call to
the U-17 National Team.
He is survived by his mother, three sisters and two brothers.