Emmanuel Adebayor's Family Crisis Gets Messier; Brother Tells his Own Side of the Story

Following Tottenham Hotspur’s striker, Emmanuel Seyi Adebayor's recent outburst on Facebook, against his mother and siblings, SunNews caught up with star's younger brother, Rotimi Adebayor in Lome, Togo to hear the family's side of the story. When they met with Hajia Adebayor, the mother of Togo’s most famous football player, she revealed that she is under instruction not to talk about the issue.

• Some people here in Togo said that you are always willing to give out to the needy. How are you able to meet their demands now that your elder brother, Emmanuel has withdrawn his proper­ties from your care?

It’s really tough now. The situation is no longer the way it used to be. I hardly go out because I have my own business to mind. As you can see that I run a bar very close to where I live.

• Now your brother has a problem with you, which you can remember? 

Ah! the Facebook rants. Everyone knows what happened because he decided to make a mountain out
of a molehill. ‘Oro ase ni gbogbo e’ (They are words spoken out of context)

• Are the allegations levelled against you untrue? 

I have my own story as well but ‘Omo ti owo e o ti te eeku ida ko gbodo bere iku ti o pa baba re’ (A child who is yet to take control of the sword should not seek reasons for his father’s death)

• But you have apologized to him; did he accept your plea? 

No response from him yet. I apologised be­cause he is my elder brother and we have re­solved so settle issues amicably. My elder sister advised us to bury the hatchet.

• You met him at a training pitch yes­terday (Thursday, May 21)… 

Yes, we met and he said, ‘Omo Iya ba wo ni’ (My brother how are you). However, I didn’t play with them because I wasn’t in the mood.

• And you didn’t wait for him after the training. 

No, I was there till he left but he didn’t greet me as he drove off.

• He is a superstar indeed? 

I agree, yes he is

• And you annoyed him so much that he made such revelations about you? 

Hmh! I can’t explain what happened

• But you know what happened to the missing 21 phones including play sta­tion games from 27 players? 

(Smiles) No, 26 players excluding me. ‘Mi o kin se ole’ (I am not a thief)

• Is it because you cannot steal your own phone? 

‘Mi o ji mobile phone, Mo ri he ni’ (I didn’t steal any mobile phone. I fortuitously found them and picked)

• How did it happen and when? 

It was at the FC Metz football Academy in France and I was 14 years old then. My mates were already at the training pitch on that day, so I was running to meet up with them when I found the mobile phone on the aisle within the training complex.

• So you picked it and didn’t declare that you found a mobile phone, which belongs to your teammate. 

That was the mistake I made and I regretted it thereafter. Actually I kept it on the table in my room and my roommate wanted to know who owns the phone because he didn’t have any then. I told him how I found it, and then he de­manded to make use of it.

• What’s his name? 

Kelvin. He is an American and the owner of the phone is from Asia but from an ‘Arab coun­try’ The ‘Arab’ boy saw the phone with Kelvin and immediately reported the case to the man­agement of the academy. They informed my brother about it. He called me to hear my side of the story but I was later informed to pack my things out of the academy.

• What about the remaining mobile phones you were accused of stealing at the academy? 

‘Mo ni mio ja ole se’ (I didn’t steal). I have just explained what happened.

• Your brother has released three posts on Facebook to paint a bad pic­ture of the family? 

It’s really disheartening that such a thing is happening to us right now. My wife was mocked at the market after the first post Seyi (Emmanuel Adebayor) published on Facebook. She called me to inform me about what people are saying. Immediately I logged in and read the post. I felt very sad.

• What did you do thereafter? 

I called him and asked him why he had to do that but he got angry with me. We had a heated argument on phone, which led to unprintable words being used freely. As a matter of fact, we quarrelled over the phone for almost two hours.

• You hurled insults on your elder brother who made you and the Ade­bayor family famous? 

Yes I did that because I felt very sad and em­barrassed. Then he made a decision to inflict more insinuations against me.

• How? 

He called my phone before he released the second post on Facebook. He asked me to go and read the second posts, which he wanted to release in 30 minutes.

• And… 

He did in exactly thirty minutes and before I could log into my F acebook account, my friends called me to quickly go and read the second part of my ‘film’.

• What film? 

The post he released, the second rant against the family. It’s sad because our mother, who poured her blood on our heads, received the greatest insult of her life. A woman who suf­fered so that we can live a good life is now re­ceiving such a disgraceful accusation.

• You mean the witchcraft allegation? 

Yes and all those nonsense things he wrote against me and our elder sister in Ghana. Well, we have decided to leave it all in God’s hand. Our mother is a not a witch neither does she practice witchcraft. How can your mother wish you bad luck? I play football as well and I know that players do suffer loss of form. He shouldn’t put the blame on anyone.

• What happened to Seyi’s home in Ghana? 

He has over 50 houses in Lome and cur­rently lives in Didjole. He also has some others in Ghana. He has taken custody of everything.

• Your mum is back at where she sells polythene bags, padlocks and other things at the border. 

It’s really sad to see her return to a business she left a long time ago. No one would be hap­py to see her mum in this sort of situation. Well, I leave it all in God’s hand. He will judge every situation. ‘Ayanmo ni gbogbo nkan’ (Destiny will always prevail).