Adebayor’s Kinsmen In Nigeria Sad Over Family Crisis

For a while now, the public war between Togolese footballer and Tottenham Hotspur forward Emmanuel Adebayor and his siblings has been surprising.

The footballer alleged that his mother is a witch and his siblings are looking for ways for him to go down in life not considering everything he has done for them. The footballer in a series of Facebook posts took time to explain some of the alleged undoings of his siblings and mother.

While a lot of people were of the opinion that the Tottenham forward went too far by posting real family issues on social media, some of Adebayor's kinsmen in Nigeria are not happy that the family crisis is happening at all, much less its widespread publicity on social media.

The Punch spoke with the player’s relations and kinsmen in Igbaye, Odo Otin local government area of Osun state, on the issue.

Pa Ahmed Oyetayo, who is second in rank to the monarch of the town and also a retired Chief Nursing Officer at General Hospital, Osogbo, Osun state said: “We are not happy about the development and we are appealing to them to stop the show of shame. I am sure their father, Shadrach, will not be happy in his grave. It is disturbing when siblings engage in this kind of dirty fight.

“There is no family where there are no issues but such issues are not made public. I believe it is the handiwork of the devil. The devil will always want to cause division where there is unity and they just have to realise this and forgive one another. They can still come together and forget the past.

“We do not know how their quarrel started and we won’t apportion blames but we are using this medium to reach out to them to stop this fight.

“Our family here in Igbaye wants them to come home and do something (to re-establish their father’s legacy). They can rebuild their father’s house. Their father, Shadrach, built a house here when he was living in Ghana. They can rebuild it or build their own. We are proud of them and even if they will not come, they should stop the fight. We are begging them in the name of God.”

One of Adebayor’s cousins who resides in Igbaye, John Odesola, said that he is sad about the rift among his cousins and their mother. He attributed the rift to the devil, who he said would always want to cause disaffection in any peaceful relationship. Odesola said, “The crisis among the siblings is disturbing. If I could, I would visit them to see how the crisis could be solved. I will like to advise them to stop the fight, and I want to beg them to put an end to the daily accusations which is just like washing their dirty linen in the public.

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“There is bound to be misunderstanding even between husband and wife but making it public is not a solution to such. My brothers should think twice and discontinue their quarrel.”

However, Kunle, another resident, said he believed the story as it was told by Adebayor. But he wanted the family members to end the rift. Kunle said he believed that the family problems contributed to the player's loss in form in the just ended season.

He said, “I think their mum knows something about the family crisis. They said she is a witch but it may be so or she may be doing something to make them believe that she is fetish. But Adebayor should beg her because the woman is his mother. No matter what has happened, he should beg her and I think his career will pick up again.”

The kinsmen said that Emmanuel and his siblings were born and raised in Togo after their father left Ghana, when the former Ghana president Jerry Rawlings drove illegal Nigerian immigrants out of the country. They said Shadrach, their father, chose to settle in Togo rather than return to Nigeria.

Shadrach, according to them, married a young woman from Ekusa, a community not far from Igbaye. The couple raised their family in Togo and Emmanuel rose to stardom.