{"id":168322,"date":"2025-07-04T12:06:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T11:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/akpabio-mourns-late-super-eagles-legend-peter-rufai"},"modified":"2025-07-04T13:24:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T12:24:00","slug":"akpabio-mourns-late-super-eagles-legend-peter-rufai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/akpabio-mourns-late-super-eagles-legend-peter-rufai","title":{"rendered":"Akpabio Mourns Late Super Eagles Legend Peter Rufai"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has paid tribute to the late Super Eagles goalkeeper, Peter Rufai, describing him as simply unbeatable.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement issued through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, on Friday, Akpabio remembered Rufai as one of Nigeria\u2019s greatest football stars who brought pride to the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI recall his impressive days at Stationery Stores FC in Lagos, where he amazed fans in the local league. At the national and international levels, he proved his skill, playing for strong clubs in Europe and earning the nickname \u2018Dodo Mayana.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Senate President highlighted Rufai\u2019s important role for the Nigerian national team during the 1990s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeter Rufai was one of the best goalkeepers Nigeria has ever produced. His performances at the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia and the 1994 World Cup in the United States were outstanding. He was simply unbeatable in goal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Akpabio expressed sadness over the loss and extended condolences to Rufai\u2019s family, the Nigerian Football Federation, and football fans across the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn behalf of my family, constituents, the Senate, and the entire National Assembly, I offer my deepest sympathy. May God grant him eternal rest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Recall that Peter Rufai passed away in Lagos in the early hours of Thursday after a brief illness. He was 61 years old.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has paid tribute to the late Super Eagles goalkeeper, Peter Rufai, describing him as simply unbeatable. In a statement issued through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, on Friday, Akpabio remembered Rufai as one of Nigeria\u2019s greatest football stars who brought pride [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":168321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[621,254,17915],"class_list":["post-168322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-akpabio","tag-nigeria","tag-peter-rufai"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Akpabio Mourns Late Super Eagles Legend Peter Rufai - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has paid tribute to the late Super Eagles goalkeeper, Peter Rufai, describing ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/akpabio-mourns-late-super-eagles-legend-peter-rufai\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Akpabio Mourns Late Super Eagles Legend Peter Rufai\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has paid tribute to the late Super Eagles goalkeeper, Peter Rufai, describing ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/akpabio-mourns-late-super-eagles-legend-peter-rufai\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-04T11:06:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-04T12:24:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1751619327.824264.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"894\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/akpabio-mourns-late-super-eagles-legend-peter-rufai#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/akpabio-mourns-late-super-eagles-legend-peter-rufai\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Akpabio Mourns Late Super Eagles Legend Peter Rufai\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-04T11:06:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-04T12:24:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/akpabio-mourns-late-super-eagles-legend-peter-rufai\"},\"wordCount\":242,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/akpabio-mourns-late-super-eagles-legend-peter-rufai#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1751619327.824264.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Akpabio\",\"Nigeria\",\"Peter Rufai\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/akpabio-mourns-late-super-eagles-legend-peter-rufai#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/akpabio-mourns-late-super-eagles-legend-peter-rufai\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/akpabio-mourns-late-super-eagles-legend-peter-rufai\",\"name\":\"Akpabio Mourns Late Super Eagles Legend Peter Rufai - 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