Oke Kayode

Attacking Midfielder (C) - Bendel Insurance
29 Aug 2026
Saturday
Process

Marked for Oke Kayode

4 Edition

The Bendel Insurance Post

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Bendel Insurance out of the cup

Plateau United ended it 2‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.

Market

Chizoba Amaefule asks to leave Bendel Insurance

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Elmer Arunta is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bendel Insurance is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Oke Kayode pulls a muscle — 14 days out

The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.

Transfer targets

Fon Boris Kache will not be coming to Bendel Insurance

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at PWD Bamenda is saying, and nobody at Bendel Insurance is enjoying the guessing.

Match

No end in sight to Bendel Insurance's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bendel Insurance has to find a result from somewhere.

Boardroom

Elmer Arunta signs for Rivers United while still at Bendel Insurance

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Elmer Arunta has agreed terms with Rivers United for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

Market

US Bougouni come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Bendel Insurance did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

A falling-out at Bendel Insurance

Oke Kayode and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

In brief

Back issues
3 Edition

The Bendel Insurance Post

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Bendel Insurance say no — this time

The offer from Warri Wolves for Efe Obiomo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Transfer targets

Adama Traoré will not be coming to Bendel Insurance

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Djoliba is saying, and nobody at Bendel Insurance is enjoying the guessing.

Boardroom

Joshua Baba signs for Rivers United while still at Bendel Insurance

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Joshua Baba has agreed terms with Rivers United for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bendel Insurance

Oke Kayode and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Transfer targets

Djoliba tell Bendel Insurance: Youssouf Simpara is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad

Ebuka Okoro falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Market

US Bougouni join the queue for Joshua Baba

Add another name to the list: US Bougouni have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Joshua Baba. The answer from Bendel Insurance has not changed — yet.

Player ratings

Tobi Ige was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Player ratings

The game went through Elmer Arunta — 7.66

Marked 7.66 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.

In brief

2 Edition

The Bendel Insurance Post

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Emmanuel Dung

Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Anthony Cletus has said yes to Wikki Tourists

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Bendel Insurance have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Squad

7 saves: Bamidele Adeniyi was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Fon Boris Kache

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bendel Insurance have done the hard part with PWD Bamenda, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Squad

Oke Kayode in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bendel Insurance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Ebere Ihenacho steps up from the Bendel Insurance academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ebere Ihenacho has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

Market

One of our own: Nnamdi Olayinka joins the Bendel Insurance first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nnamdi Olayinka is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Market

Calvin Olagunju steps up from the Bendel Insurance academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Calvin Olagunju has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

Match

A bad afternoon for Bendel Insurance against Abia Warriors

0‑1 to Abia Warriors, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

In brief

1 Edition

The Bendel Insurance Post

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

7 saves: Bamidele Adeniyi was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Player ratings

Emmanuel Dung beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Oke Kayode signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Oke Kayode commits to Bendel Insurance for another 4 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Bendel Insurance

Oke Kayode was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Emmanuel Nwokeji falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Market

Wikki Tourists join the queue for Anthony Cletus

Add another name to the list: Wikki Tourists have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Anthony Cletus. The answer from Bendel Insurance has not changed — yet.

Match

Chisom Chikatara sends Bendel Insurance past Rivers United

It finished 1‑0, and it was Chisom Chikatara’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Bendel Insurance.

Market

49 months and counting on Oke Kayode

Still no offer on the table, and Oke Kayode’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Don-Pedro Samuel is in the works

Bendel Insurance have made the call to Bayelsa United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

In brief