By AHMED KAIGAMA

A handful of football fans in Bauchi on Sunday went berserk and attacked the referee of the match between Wikki Tourists Football Club and visiting Rangers International of Enugu.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the incident occurred after the match, a 2021/2022 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) Match Day 11 fixture, ended goalless.

The football fans were unhappy with the result of the match at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium.

The furious fans rained abuses on the referee, whose name could not be ascertained as at the time of this report, accusing him of bad officiating.

They threw stones at him and pelted him and other match officials with sachets of water.

The referee was however rescued by policemen and other security agents in the stadium, after scaring away the mob.

Aliyu Illelah, one of the fans, said the referee was not sincere in his officiating, explaining that that was why the fans got provoked and wanted to attack him.

Another fan, Musa Manager, however said their action was barbaric.

“What they (the angry fans) did was not right. While the Wikki Tourists’ players did their best, the referee was very realistic in his officiating,” he said.

Meanwhile, the head coach of Rangers International, Abdul Maikaba, refused to speak on either the incident or the match, saying “it is not safe to conduct interviews”.

On his part, the Technical Adviser of Wikki Tourists, Kabiru Dogo, could not be located for any comment because of the tense situation in the stadium. (NAN)

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