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By Usman Shehu, Bauchi
In continuation of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) 2025/2026 season, Wikki Tourists Football Club of Bauchi, on Sunday beat visiting Niger Tornadoes Football Club of Minna 1–0 in their Match Day 12 encounter held at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium, Bauchi.
Both teams started like hungry lions looking for early goal, but all efforts to register opening score by both teams proves abortive. Twenty minutes into the game what would have been an opening goal by Ismail Sarki of the visiting Tornadoes was contained by combined defence strategies of Haruna Aliyu and Abba Musa of Wikki Tourists. However, the first stanza of the match ended goalless.
On resumption into the second half, Coach Abdul Maikaba of Wikki, noticed danger of skillful display by attacking force of the visiting team which could be fruitful, immediately employed a tactical solution by encouraging intelligent runs from the flanks and introducing a skilled result oriented attacking midfielder Nasiru Jibrin Baggio, which paid off in the 86th minute as he registered the opening goal that ended the match with one goal and three points for Wikki Tourists.
Speaking after the match, Coach Maikaba expressed delight at the victory while acknowledging the game’s difficulty. “At halftime, I told my players to exploit the wings to bypass Niger Tornadoes’ compact midfield,” he said.
Niger Tornadoes’ coach, Majin Mohammed, expressed disappointment at the late defeat, explaining that his plan was to hold Wikki Tourists to a draw by capitalizing on counter-attacks to the end. “Unfortunately Coach Maikaba knows my team very well, and he made it very difficult for us to achieve our target today,” Mohammed explained.
Our correspondent in Bauchi reports that the victory over Tornadoes lifts Wikki Tourists to 12th position on the NPFL League table with 16 points, climbing from 16th position, while Niger Tornadoes remain put in 5th position with 17 points after 12 games.
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