The family of late Super Eagles’ striker, Uwem Ekarika has appealed to the Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Sunday Dare, to consider extending support to them just as he had done to the families of some late ex-internationals recently.
Ekarika was a household name in Nigerian football in the mid 1980s. He was a tormentor-in -chief to defenders as he scored freely for Calabar Rovers 1984/85, Leventis United of Ibadan and the national under-20 team, the Flying Eagles, during the preliminary of the African qualifying series ahead of the 1985 FIFA under 20 World Cup finals. He scored most of the goals which ensured Nigeria’s qualification for the Moscow’85 World Cup finals. But he could not go to the World Cup eventually because of his examination at Calabar Polytechnic.
Ekarika left behind her wife, Esther, and five children who are struggling to go to school, courtesy of the wife’s paltry salary as a teacher. His last born, Ubong Uwem Ekarika, 18, has appealed to the sports minister to include his family on the list of families of fallen sports heroes and heroins who receive monthly stipends from the ministry, considering the enormous sacrifices which their father made to the country many years ago.