JIDE Fashikun, founder of Gongnews, an online newspaper is dead.
Jide is the first Nigerian to have played professional handball and professional football.
According to his friend and collaborator, Chief Mary Onyali, Jide passed this morning at Federal Medical Centre, Abuja.
He had suffered partial stroke on January 15, 2019. His condition took “a turn for the worse on midnight Saturday.
We rushed him to the hospital. They did everything to resuscitate him. By 7.23am he was pronounced dead “, a distraught Mary Onyali told our reporter.
Jide Fashikun was a sports journalist. He worked for Thisday newspapers and other media houses before striking out on his own.
Towards the end of his life, Jide was consumed with routing out corruption in the Nigerian polity, especially sports. He had a running battle with the NFF, including its president, Amaju Pinnick.
Nigerian sports is in mourning, especially the handball family of which Jide Fashikun was a revered member. He played for the national team for many years. Fashikun played for both soccer and handball teams of Zamalek of Egypt.
We at Elendu Reports shall miss Jide. For years he anchored our election coverage. He was also a handball team mate of our colleague, Jonathan Elendu.