By Rasaq aoboirien
AJIBOLA Otegbeye has pleaded with Abubakar Bukola Saraki (ABS) FC of Ilorin coach, Henry Makinwa to forgive him, reports NaijaSportsXtra.blogspot.com.
Recall the striker was declared awol (absent without leave) by his employers more than 10 days after he failed to resume for their training camp in Lokoja after the Yuletide, as has stayed away without explanations.
Otegbeye took to his Facebook page, shared a picture of him and Makinwa and then wrote: "Hey coach, I'm sorry for anything I may have done wrong, please find a place in your heart to forgive me as a brother, son, for the sake of unity and unity and consider the good time we spent together.
"You're still my number one boss and I'm happy to have work with you, the hope of working with you again in club or national team. I decided to go out in public for people to help me to beg you. I love you coach. I hope to see you soon."
Recall Otegbeye told another online source reason why he decided not to show up in the Saraki Boys Lokoja pre-season.
"Let me state that during the (Nigeria National League) Super4 in Gombe I was injured and was not taken care of (by the club). I was the one that treated myself. During the period of my injury, I never missed a day of training not until I was knocked on the same spot of the injury again.
"I told them that the injury was getting worse and and asked them to consider me for proper treatment and that was even after the Christmas break. So a day before the New Year break, I told them I want to travel to Kano where I could treat my leg because that's where my parents stay and the rest of the family. We were supposed to resume on January 2 and travel on January 3 to Lokoja for pre-season. I told them if I couldn't meet up on the resumption date at Ilorin, which was on the 2nd (of January), I would join them in Lokoja from Kano on the 3rd (of January).
"After the training on the 2nd of January, they announced the 25-man squad that would travel (to Lokoja) with my name not listed. The coach immediately asked them to remove my name from the list and he replaced me with another player. This was the news I heard. I felt bad that I was injured and they didn't treat me and I had to sacrifice my own time and money to treat my injury just to be okay before the league starts and they paid me back by removing my name from the team.
"Who will hear that and will be happy," Otegbeye asked rhetorically. "And since then I decided to rest my body and get well since they don't want me again. So why declare me wanted?"
