‘I’m dying’- Calvin Bassey’s father cries out, begs for reunion

The father of Super Eagles defender Calvin Bassey, Kingsley Ughelumba, has again gone public with an emotional appeal, begging to be reunited with his four sons after nearly 18 years of separation.

Ughelumba, who spoke in a viral interview, said he has been cut off from his children’s lives due to a long-standing dispute with their mother, Ebere Bassey, insisting that his pain has lingered despite repeated attempts to reconnect.

“I am dying in silence,” he said, adding that he has never had issues with his children but believes their mother deliberately shut him out after the marriage collapsed.

According to him, his first three sons, Elvis, Mathew and Calvin were born in Italy, while his youngest, Michael, was born in Ireland. He said the family later lived briefly in London before marital disagreements led to their separation.

“We had husband-and-wife arguments. I went to work and before I came back, she had left with the children,” Ughelumba claimed.

He said the only time their mother reached out was in 2017 when the children needed Nigerian passports.

“I sent all my documents and bought their flight tickets. When they stayed with me, I never told them their mum did anything to me. She muted me after Calvin signed for a football club,” he alleged.

Bassey, who rose to prominence at Rangers before sealing big-money moves to Ajax and later Fulham, has openly credited his mother for supporting his football journey. The defender adopted her surname as his career progressed, distancing himself from his father’s name, Ughelumba, which he previously used at youth level.

“He’s just not in my life. Since I was six, it has been mum and us boys,” Bassey once said, explaining why he chose to wear his mother’s name on his shirt.

Ughelumba, however, insisted he made several efforts to reconnect, including a dramatic trip during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 when Calvin was at Leicester City.

“I drove from London to Leicester. I wasn’t going because he was a footballer; I wanted to see my son. The club called him and used his childhood nickname, ‘Biggy’, and he responded,” he said.

He claimed that after initially welcoming him, Bassey’s attitude changed once he contacted his mother.

“He told me to say whatever I wanted to say and leave. He said he didn’t want to see me again and drove off.”

The distraught father also revealed he travelled to Abidjan during the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in another failed attempt to see his son, before moving on to Abuja to try again, without success.

“I have no problem with my children. Even if I am a devil, I cannot be a devil where my children are,” he said.