Stanley Eguma: Nigerian league's longest serving coach released

The coach of Nigerian football club Rivers United, Stanley Eguma. has been released by his kidnappers.

The news was confirmed by the team's general manager Okey Kpalukwu but the club did not give any further details of his release and did not say if a ransom had been paid.

According to the police he had been abducted in south-eastern Nigeria on 15 June on his way back from an away match against Adamawa United played in Gombe state in northern Nigeria.

Two men who had been travelling with Eguma had alerted them to the ambush, which at the time they said was carried out by unidentified gunmen.

The vehicle they were travelling in had been forced to the side of the road and the pair were then forced out of the car and the kidnappers drove off with Eguma still in the vehicle.

Eguma is the longest serving coach in the Nigeria Professional Football League.

He joined the now defunct Dolphins in 2008 and was retained by Rivers United in 2017 after the government merged Sharks and Dolphins football clubs to form a Port Harcourt club, Rivers United.

The kidnapping of footballers, their relatives and club officials has become a common occurrence in Nigeria. Eguma is the second NPFL coach to be kidnapped in 24 months— after Katsina United's Abdulahi Biffo.

In 2018, the father of Nigeria captain John Mikel Obi was kidnapped for the second time in seven years.

Last year, two Nigerian footballers - one a Super Eagles international - were kidnapped. Ekundayo Ojo of Enyimba and Abia Comet's Banjamin Iluyomade later regained their freedom.

Former National team coach Samson Siasia also had his mother held in captivity for ten weeks before she was released.

This article originally appeared on BBC Sport

Photo: BBC