Alex Appiah, popularly known as Stadium Man, who survived the tragic May 9, 2001 disaster at the Accra Sports Stadium, narrated his harrowing experience on 3FM’s Sunrise Show on Tuesday.
According to Stadium Man, the incident occurred after Kotoko fans were left disappointed with the referee’s unfair decision against their team.
The fans reacted by throwing stadium seats onto the pitch, which eventually led to a chaotic situation.
In an attempt to calm the situation, the police resorted to firing tear gas into the crowd.
Just imagine, if your parents don’t have the money to cater for your bills then you would have to fight for your life.”
“When I see spectators throwing objects at each other at the stadium I feel sad.
Why should this happen?”
“Did you go to the stadium to support your team or you went there to cause a fight?” He quizzed.
Host of the Sunrise Show, Johnnie Hughes asked Stadium Man what caused the disaster at the stadium when the match was still in play.
In his narration he said; “I’m a Kotoko fan and while the match was still in play, the referee awarded Hearts of Oak a penalty.
Majority of the Kotoko fans were not happy with the referee’s decision.
In our minds, we thought the Hearts of Oak’s team and management wanted to cheat on us.”
“I will say the truth, Kotoko spectators started throwing the stadium seats onto the field.
As Kotoko fans we thought we have been cheated on so we fought back.”
“In this era, referees are still making decisions that make a team feel cheated and we should bear in mind that another May 9 disaster is ahead of us since we’ve not learned anything from what happened.” He added.
“After the throwing of seats on the field, there followed firing tear gas from the police.
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