The family of late Mr Israel Menson Ehimiaghe (nee Bamawo) recently donated the “humble sum” of One Million Naira to Bendel Insurance Football Club of Benin City. The Ehimiaghes see their gesture as an attempt to support a sport club that their late father worked for and supported during his life time. “Wherever our late father is, he is going to be saying: “na me born dem.” Prior to his death in December 1979, the late Mr Israel Menson Ehimiaghe was the branch manager of the now defunct Bendel Insurance Company in their office in Auchi.
One of the children of the late super supporter of the Benin Arsenal, Cornelius Ehimiaghe stated: “my father was a Bendel Insurance football club supporter through and through. I grew up to hear the slogan nobody can win us, only Bendel. When my late father was alive, there were commemorative clothes, T-shirts, caps, and paper flags that celebrated our winning the 1972 and 1978 Nigeria Challenge Cup. Though I could not read properly in 1978, there was a pictorial football magazine that covered our 1978 FA Cup victory over Enugu Rangers. After my father’s death in 1979, I more or less inherited all these football memorabilia, as well as his transistor radio.”
“Furthermore, I recall that after we won the Nigerian league in 1979, my late father scouted a street football in Auchi, got the permission of the player (Aminu Momoh) parents, drove the player to Benin City in his 504 Peugeot car, and introduced the player to coach Alabi Assien. After a brief trial, the young midfielder was employed by Bendel Insurance FC. My father used to plan his travel to Benin around the weekends that the Benin Arsenal had their home matches. The last of the matches he watched his beloved Bendel Insurance FC play was the semi-final match of the Africa Cup Winners Cup against Cannon Sportiff of Yaoundé, at the Ogbe Stadium in Benin in November 1979. The match ended in a goalless draw which meant that the Benin Arsenal failed to make it to the final due to a dubious offside goal by Onguene Manga, two weeks earlier in Yaoundé. A few years ago, I told coach Alabi Assien that my late father would not have died on 12/12/1979, if the Benin Arsenal had triumphed over Cannon Sportiff. Without fear or favour, my late father would have negotiated with the angel of death to come and pick him up a few weeks later, after Bendel Insurance FC would have won the 1979 Africa Cup Winners Cup. The rest is history.”
“Growing up without a father in the austerity/structural adjustment ravaged 1980s was very tough. Our grandparents, some of my mother’s “super cousins,” Barrister Charles Adogah (SAN) and late auntie T.M. Faleye were very supportive. My elder brother and I had to also put in some odd jobs shift in order to ensure that we did not go to bed hungry. I started working in the civil service in Bendel State before I was eighteen years old. I never one day dreamt of going to the university. However, after more than five years in the unemployment queue, my mother got a nursing job in UNIBEN. This ensured that we just managed to survive the almost wasted 1980s.”
As part of following the footsteps of his late father, Cornelius Ehimiaghe also paid a courtesy visit to coach Alabi Assien, had a few minutes chat with the Management and coaching staff of Bendel Insurance FC, where he commended their efforts in steering the Benin Arsenal from relegation waters. The Ehimiaghes also donated two hundred thousand Naira to the supporters’ club of Bendel Insurance FC. “Win, lose or draw, we are proud of our “UP BENDEL identity.”
