Nigerian footballer facing lashes in Sudan pleads innocence

A Nigerian football star sentenced to 40 lashes in Sudan for driving under the influence of alcohol insisted on Thursday on his innocence and said he could not imagine himself being flogged.

“I am not guilty of this crime … and I cannot even imagine myself being flogged so I don’t put my mind there,” said Stephen Worgu, 20, who plays for Sudanese first division outfit al-Merreikh of Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city.

On Tuesday, a Khartoum court condemned the young footballer to 40 lashes and ordered him to pay a fine of 50 Sudanese pounds (20 dollars) for alcohol consumption and 200 Sudanese pounds for driving under the influence.

Article 78 of the penal code in the conservative, mainly Muslim state forbids alcohol consumption.

Worgu, a Nigerian Christian who signed a contract with al-Merreikh in 2008 for 2.6 million dollars, a huge sum for the Sudanese league, was stopped in the Sudanese capital on August 21.

“I saw this car very close to me and later the car came I was thinking the car wants to overtake me, and when the car came, they were like trying to make me stop, like giving me a sign,” he told a small group of journalists.

“I thought my car has a problem and I stopped … They took me to the police station. I was the one that drove the car to the station,” he said, adding he could not understand what was said because he does not speak Arabic.

He was later told by friends that he had been stopped for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.

“If the police sees you, stops you and observes you are drunk, the first thing they do is to stop you from driving … but these guys they did nothing like this,” Worgu said.

“They say I drank araki … I asked my lawyer what is araki? He said it is a local drink that contains alcohol,” said the footballer. “The lawyer was like saying this guy earns good money how he can drink araki?” a cheap local drink.

Worgu, who said in a BBC interview last April that he was finding it difficult to adapt to life in Sudan and would love to play in Europe, said he was not given any medical test by police to prove he had been drinking alcohol.

A club official has said Worgu’s lawyer has launched an appeal.