FC Ifeany iUbah’s Ivorian import, Pasca Seka, got the highest votes of 338 to emerge the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) Match Day 23 VAT Wonder Goal award winner.
Seka ran neck and neck with Lobi Stars’ Anthony Okpotu in the votes on the twitter handle picking 73 votes to Okpotu’s 71 of the 198 votes cast by fans leaving El-Kanemi Warriors’ Aghahowa Otakho with the remaining 54 votes.
However, it was fans voting on the www.npfl.ng website that gave Seka a wide lead as his goal was the favourite of 267 of the 466 voters and Okpotu picked up votes from 229 fans while Otakho had 43.
In the final count, Seka secured 338 votes, Okoptu 229 and Otakho finished with 97 votes.
The goal was the Ivorian forward’s fourth this season and the second of their 2-0 defeat of Abubakar Bukola Saraki (ABS) FC in the fixture decided at the Nnewi Stadium. The burly striker had benefitted from a defensive mix-up by defenders of ABS to slam home from inside the box.
It was a goal Fred Edoreh, Chairman of Lagos State chapter of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) described glowingly in these words: “it takes not just intuitiveness but also calculation to shrug off a marker to hit the ball well in the situation he got the ball inside the box”.
Seka thus becomes the fourth in the line of winners of the VAT Wonder Goal, an initiative of the League Management Company (LMC) and supported by the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) to promote club community engagement and raise awareness for tax payment within the football community.
A cash prize of N150, 000 goes to the winner half of which will be donated to a charity to be nominated by player within the state where the club is located.
Past winners have been Ayo Saka of Rivers United, Ubong Friday of Akwa United and Ochowechi Salefu of Remo Stars.