May 9th Disaster: Kotoko Fans Started ‘Fight’

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. However, this only worsened the situation, and many spectators were severely injured in the process.

Stadium Man said; “Every May 9 is always not a good day for me. As I’m talking now, I didn’t go to work today. The reason is, I feel uneasy within my body.”

Talking about how severed he was after the clash; he said; “I went through severe pain due to how injured I was. My injury was severe to the extent that the doctor who was assigned to me for treatment advised me not to work for a year. On every May 9, I reminisce on what happened that day and I’ve come to realise Ghanaians have a big problem.”

Explaining why he said Ghanaians have a big problem; “Our leaders are not ready to tell the youth the truth about important things. The Stadium is not insured under an insurance organization so if you go to the stadium and you don’t take care and you get injured you will have to take care of the expenses that come with the injury. 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. Just today I heard a spectator through poured urine on a fellow spectator. 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. The Hearts of Oak spectators were very calm at that moment. When they were awarded the penalty, we didn’t understand why the referee made that decision. 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. So we(Kotoko fans) decided to move to Hearts of Oak’s sitting area for safety. Because we caused the fight first, they(Hearts of Oak fans) sacked us from their territory. Because we(Kotoko fans) led the fight, majority of Hearts fans died.”

126 people lost their lives. This incident makes was the first and worst disaster to have ever happened in Ghana and Africa by then.