I Ate Bread And Water In Prison – Emenike

Newly signed West Ham striker, Emmanuel Emenike has finally broken his silence on the match-fixing allegations that led him to a Turkish prison for days even though he was innocent.

In an exclusive interview the new Hammers forward granted The Sun UK, Emenike recalled how he was treated like an animal by Turkish authorities in spite of being a star player for one of the top clubs in the country, Fenerbahce.

Emenike says he is still haunted by the difficult time he went through during the match-fixing scandal.

According to him, he spent four frightening nights in a Turkish cell after being accused of faking injury to deliberately miss a title-deciding game, surviving only on bread and water.

“My time in prison was a crazy nightmare that I couldn’t wake up from.

“I’ve never committed a crime in my life, but I was treated like a criminal, living on bread and water.

“It was not a good experience! It gave me a different perspective on life.”

He added: “When I was finally cleared I thanked God for letting justice prevail.”

Emenike’s match-fixing ordeal started in July, 2011, when he was playing for Turkish club Karabukspor where just after eight weeks of joining, he was arrested as part of a football corruption investigation and accused of deliberately missing a match against Fenerbahce with a fake injury — in return for getting a move to the Turkish giants.

Fenerbahce won the game 1-0 to clinch the title, but two weeks later the champions were alleged to have rewarded Emenike by signing him for £9million. Emenike and Karabukspor denied the allegations and his club produced a doctor’s certificate verifying his injury but that did not stop the Turkish authorities from throwing him in jail before he was eventually released by a Turkish court for lack of evidence.

Although Emenike was released after four days, the investigation continued and he was not acquitted until April 2013.

Emenike remembered how about two years later after he was acquitted, he was on the team bus that was shot at by a gunman on its way to Trabzon airport in Turkey. The driver was wounded and taken to hospital but all the players escaped injury.

Emenike recalled: “I was on the phone to my brother when I heard a loud bang. The bus suddenly swerved and there was panic.

“I instinctively took cover and our security officer told us the driver had been shot. Seeing him covered in blood was scary.

“We were lucky but it brought back bad memories. I had been involved in a terrible car accident in Nigeria where my mother and I both lucky to be alive.”