The Death of Lion Man, the failure of NWF

A professional heavyweight wrestler Lion Man died last Sunday shortly after his fight was called off Three Minutes into his Fight at the National Stadium, Lagos. I do not think that the reason for his death has being established up till now. Lion Man, Christopher Okechukwu whose wife is due for delivery soon, had his fight called off when he was noticed not to be fit for the fight. I wonder why there was no test for fitness in the first place before Lion Man went up to the ring. The Blessed put it this way on Nairaland " These wrestlers, if at all, were not medically/physcially and pyschologically assessed and certified fit to fight..." This is really the truth. This neglect is unacceptable.


There were lots of sad drama surrounding Lion Man's passing as was captured and reported by the PM News. Lion man whose fight was stopped and nearly collapsed when he stepped outside the ring as I saw on TV, was not attended to by any medical personnel but his friend who supported him and led him out of the Stadium. The organisers Wrestling and Charity Organisation of Nigeria in conjunction with DAAR Communications, Accolades and Ratinwa Communications obviously did not think of any complication even from the fight that might require any medical attention or first aid. The Nigerian Wrestling Federation too, did not seem to think it is important to have a team of medical personnel and first aid providers standing by.




Lion Man was taking in a Pick Up Van to an hospital where he was rejected for lack of money for his medical care. The same pick up took him back to the Stadium and they left him there lying unconscious. If any necessary measure has been taken Lion Man would not have died. So, the question is, who provides medical facilities and treatment for our sport persons in Nigeria? My hubby who is into Taekwando, told me how so many times they were responsible for themselves when they go for orgnised, supported and sponsored sports. A case in point was a fight they went for in Abuja, where one of thier colleagues fainted while fighting. They not the sport organisers did all they could to wake up the fainted sport man while the whole stadium watched. What happened after was the organisers asking them to write and sign that if anything happens to them, they choose to fight by their own freewill. Where then is safety? Where then is care? Where then is responsibility and the protection of human rights?


RIP Lion Man! I hope things will change, I hope NWF will get sued for this and I hope a big lesson is learnt from this.