Oliha, ex-Super Eagles player, dies at 44

Oliha, a  midfielder in his playing days, was a member of the history-making Super Eagles team that played at the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 1994, two months after the squad won the Africa Cup of Nations for the second time in Tunisia.

He died at Yusjib Industrial Medicare in Ilorin after he reportedly slumped in his toilet on Sunday before he was rushed to the hospital where the Chief Medical Director Dr Abdulraheem Yusuf, confirmed him dead.
He was also a member of the Flying Eagles squad to the 1987 World Cup in Chile.

He first played for the senior national team in a 1988 Olympic Games qualifying match against Algeria in Annaba in January 1988, and then became a fixture in the team at the 1990 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Algeria.

Reports said he was vomiting after he led Kwara Football Academy to beat a Malian team, Ben Mackezie Football Foundation  3-0 on Saturday in Ilorin.

Until his death, the ex-Nigeria international was the coach of the senior students of the Academy.

General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation, Barrister Musa Amadu, lamented the player's sudden demise on Sunday.

He said, 'This is a tragedy of huge proportions. Oliha was one of the best midfielders to have played for Nigeria. His comments and analyses on Nigerian football over the years have been quite informed and useful.

'The Nigeria Football Federation and the entire Nigeria football family mourn Oliha's passing. He was certainly one of the nation's greats and acquitted himself brilliantly in the national colours. Now, we have lost another member of the Golden Generation, following the death of Uche Okafor and Rashidi Yekini.'