TikTok star Habeeb Hamzat, popularly known as Peller, has disclosed that he suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a football coach as a teenager.
He said the experience derailed a football career that could have taken him to the World Cup.
Speaking on the latest episode of The Honest Bunch Podcast which was published on YouTube on Monday, Peller said he was supposed to be at the World Cup currently.
He said he was about 14 or 15 years old at the time and that his coach was gay but he didn’t know what that was about then.
He explained that the coach used to gather the team at an uncompleted building before training, adding that latecomers were usually fined, and he could not always pay.
Peller recounted one occasion when the coach summoned him to Agric, Ikorodu, on the pretext of an errand.
On arrival, he said the coach undressed inside a one-room apartment, asking him to join him in bed, but he questioned that as he had only come to deliver the errand he was sent
According to him, the coach tried to placate him with a promise, but he recalled stepping outside to join other children playing ball nearby, which angered the coach.
He said the coach called him back inside and locked his door but he looked at the coach and told him he needed to urinate, and that as the coach opened the door, he ran away, adding that the coach never saw him again after that.
Peller said the incident pushed him away from football.