Channels TV Head of Sports, Joe Ighile has passed on. He collapsed in the studio on Friday night while the live sports programme at 9PM was on. After introducing the programme, he told the crew that he was feeling uncomfortable and asked to take a break. He stepped out of the studio for some fresh air and collapsed a few minutes later. Few minutes after getting to the hospital, he was pronounced dead.
This is just as NFF has expressed shock at his death. The Nigeria camp at the 29th Africa Cup of Nations in Johannesburg, South Africa was badly jolted on Saturday morning when news filtered in that ace broadcast journalist Joseph Ighile had died in Lagos.
Ighile, a member of the NFF Media and Publicity Committee, was in South Africa for the group stage campaign of the Super Eagles. He was presenting his sports programme on CHANNELS television on Friday evening when he reportedly slumped and died before anxious colleagues could get him to hospital.
NFF President Aminu Maigari was taken aback when the sad news was broken to him. “Oh, my God! What happened to him? How did it happen?
“Joe (Ighile) interviewed me and I saw him doing his work quietly but diligently during the group stage in Nelspruit. A good man has gone. May his gentle soul rest in peace.”
Chairman of the NFF Media and Publicity Committee, Chief Emeka Inyama was distraught. “What happened to Joseph? I have never heard of this kind of thing.
“Joe was your idea of a hardworking, enterprising and yet, unobtrusive journalist. He did his job conscientiously and with grace and honour.
“Everyone is shocked. This is sad, very sad. As a member of the Media and Publicity Committee, he was very supportive and very positive.”
Here’s the report of his death published on Channels TV website:
Channels Television wishes to announce the death of our staff, Joseph Ighile, who died on Friday night. He was a staff of the station for nine years. Mr Ighile only just returned from South Africa where he had been covering the on-going 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
Aged 48 years, the late Ighile was a graduate of the then Bendel State University, now Edo State University, Ekpoma, where he studied English and Literature. He began his career in the media at the Edo Broadcasting Service (EBS) in the early 80s, where he was involved in youth programmes. He joined Channels Television in 2003 as a reporter/producer and before his death was the head of the Sports desk.
A multiple awards winner and member of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) media and publicity committee as well as the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), the late Ighile is survived by his wife, Ngozi, and two children, Favour and Mercy.
Burial arrangements will be announced by his family.
So sad. May his gentle soul rest in peace.
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