NFF, SWAN mourn Joe Ighile

The Nigeria camp at the 29th Africa Cup of Nations in Johannesburg, South Africa was badly jolted on Saturday morning when news filtered in that ace broadcast journalist, Joseph Ighile, had died in Lagos on Friday.
Ighile, a member of the NFF Media and Publicity Committee, was in South Africa for the group stage campaign of the Super Eagles.
He was presenting his sports programme on Channels Television on Friday evening when he reportedly slumped and died before anxious colleagues could get him to hospital.
The President of the NFF, Alhaji Aminu Maigari, was taken aback when the sad news was broken to him.
He said: “Oh, my God!
“What happened to him?
“How did it happen?
“Joe (Ighile) interviewed me and I saw him doing his work quietly but diligently during the group stage in Nelspruit.
“A good man has gone.
“May his gentle soul rest in peace.”
The Chairman of the NFF Media and Publicity Committee, Chief Emeka Inyama, was distraught.
Inyama reacted: “What happened to Joseph?
“I have never heard of this kind of thing.
“Joe was your idea of hardworking, enterprising and yet, unobtrusive journalist.
“He did his job conscientiously and with grace and honour.
“Everyone is shocked.
“This is sad.
“Very sad.
“As a member of the Media and Publicity Committee, he was very supportive and very positive.”
The President of the Sports Writers Association of. Nigeria, Seidu Abubakar, has also expressed sadness and shock over the demise Ighile.
In a statement signed on his behalf by the Head of Information and Strategy, Alloy Chukwuemeka, the SWAN boss eulogised the late sports journalist.
Abubakar said: “The news of the sudden death of our beloved colleague, Joe Ighile, yesterday was not but unbelievably devastating to the national secretarial of SWAN.
“However God knows best why the Channels TV presenter, producer/reporter who was full of life in South Africa for the ongoing Afcon, zoomed back home for other challenges only to sleep in the cold hands of death.
“We mourn him, we loved him but our creator loves him most and we have no choice but to succumb to the needs of our creator. Joe, you will remain a wonderful gift to sports journalism.”