Ikechukwu Ibenegbu’s Match Day 30 free kick rescued the three points for former champions, Enyimba International and has now won him the VAT Wonder Goal Award ahead of Adamu Hassan of Nasarawa United and Martins Usule of Katsina United.
The three had been shortlisted for the 11th in the VAT Wonder Goal award series and it was Ibenegbu who led on the two voting platforms, twitter and the league website.
Fondly called Mosquito by teammates and fans, Ibenegbu who joined Enyimba from Warri Wolves last season polled a total of 553 of the 742 votes cast by voting fans to claim his second individual football glory after emerging the League’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2006/7 season.
On the website votes, Ibenegbu secured 431 of the 547 votes and was followed by Adamu who polled 74 with Usule picking the remaining 42 votes. On the twitter platform, 122 of the 195 voting fans favoured his 88th minute curly free kick goal with Adamu polling 55 and Usule 18.
The award attracts a prize money of N150,000 with half of the amount donated to Charity organization nominated by the player from the state where his club is domiciled.
Previous winners are Ayo Saka (Rivers United), Ubong Friday (Akwa United), Salefu Ochowechi (Remo Stars), Pascal Seka of FC IfeanyiUbah and Ahmed Usman of Wikki Tourists. Others are Shedrack Asiegbu (Abia Warriors), Rabiu Ali of Kano Pillars, Wasiu Alalana (ABS), Sani Abbani (Gombe United) and Victor Chidume of Remo Stars.
The VAT Wonder Goal is an initiative of the League Management Company (LMC) to deepen engagement between Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) clubs and their communities. It is supported by the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) which uses the platform to promote tax education.
