Faith Nyasuguta
The ex-Gabonese football coach of the national under-17 team, accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of children, has been arrested by police, a judicial source has revealed.
According to the police, Patrick Assoumou Eyi “was arrested on Monday in Ntoum”, some 40 km from the capital Libreville and “he is currently in the hands of the police and is being charged with pedophilia.”
“It’s been many years that we have been talking about it. I was still very young, I think when I was playing as a junior cadet, we were already talking about it, so it’s not a new case in the Gabonese sports circles,” the source said.
Last Friday, the Gabonese Sports Minister Franck Nguema claimed that Patrick Assoumou Eyi “might have abused hundreds of young boys in the course of his duties”.
The case was first reported on Thursday by the British daily ‘The Guardian’.
“Indeed, it is worrying, it is disturbing and we wonder if we should continue to play football in our country. “
“Well, we believe that besides these kinds of cases, there are still people who have good morals,” Aurel Mabika, the father of a player of Bethel Academie player, said
On Friday, the Gabonese football federation (Fégafoot) dismissed Eyi from his duties and handed him over to the ethics committee of the national football league for probe.
“I have asked my colleague in charge of justice to extend the investigation to all national sports federations, because from now on, it is a question of eradicating from the national sports environment potential sexual predators,” Sports minister Nguema said.
The arrest has come at a time when Gabon’s federation named its final squad of football players set to feature in the upcoming African Cup of Nations tournament in Gabon.
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