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.
The late Ighile, a member of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Media and Publicity Committee, was in South Africa for the group stage campaign of the Super Eagles. He was presenting his sports programme – Sport Tonight on Channels Television on Friday evening when he slumped and died.
The NFF President, Aminu Maigari was taken aback when the 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.”
The Chairman of the NFF Media and Publicity Committee, 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.”
Late Ighile is a graduate of the then Bendel State University, now Edo State University Ekpoma where he studied English and Literature.
He began his career in media from the Edo Broadcasting Service (EBS) as a content staff where he was involved in youth programmes in the early 80’s.
His versatility earned him a job with disc engineering Ikeja, Lagos where he was made the manager of broadcast in-charge of local contents before he joined Channels Television in 2003 as a reporter/producer.
Until his death, Ighile was the head of sports desk in-charge of all the sports programmes.
The widely travelled senior sports reporter/presenter is a winner of multiple awards and a member of the Nigeria Football Federation media and publicity committee as well as Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN).