By Carlos Kambaekwa
WINDHOEK
Former Brave Warriors and United Africa Tigers’ free-scoring goal poacher Frans Foresta Nicodemus, better known as ‘Forra’ amongst the local football folk, is a free man after serving an 11-year prison term following a love-triangle killing which claimed the life of his former lover Toes Stevens in Windhoek in 1994.
Nicodemus was sentenced to an effective 20-year prison term in 1996. He was on Friday released on parole in which he has been strictly cautioned to keep a healthy distance from any kind of violent activities as a condition of his two-year parole agreement.
Nicodemus scored Namibia’s first ever international goal after the country’s admission to FIFA, against Mauritius in an African Cup of Nations qualifier at Windhoek’s Independence stadium in 1990, and was mainly instrumental for Tigers’ unequalled success in the country’s most sought-after silverware, the lucrative annual NFA Cup trophy.
His most remarkable achievement came in the 1996 final of the same competition when he scored the winning goal in a 1-nil victory over Black Africa in an entertaining match at a packed Windhoek Independence Stadium in 1996, which coincidently also collided with his last competitive match.
Nicodemus used to be a menace to many defenders dating back to his early promising career with the now defunct Hungry Lions before he signed for Tigers in 1995. He boasts a remarkable goal-scoring pedigree second to none in domestic football and has represented Namibia on several occasions.
And who says there is no life after prison? After all, the 42-year-old father of 10 children has in the meantime armed himself with a proper education after completing a three-year diploma in Marketing Management and Bookkeeping through Damelin College and is also the proud recipient of a one-year certificate in Entrepreneurship from Decosa.
While serving his prison term, Nicodemus was tasked with training fellow inmates who sought to become entrepreneurs after completing their rehabilitation process, and was also player-coach of the popular prison football team Turra Cosmos, a team formed by inmates from Namibia’s largest township Katutura.
Nicodemus was a civil servant and spent 11 years with the Ministry of Education as a chief clerk before his incarceration in 1996.