ILORIN – Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara state has reiterated his administration’s commitment to using sports as a tool to promote peaceful co-existence in the country.
Gov Ahmed stated this at the closing ceremony of the All primary schools athletics championship competition in Ilorin the state capital.
Represented by the state commissioner for sports, Ayo Bola-Kale, the governor who expressed satisfaction that the state is the hub of sports promised his government would prioritise sports development by encouraging recognised talents and also work towards discovering hidden ones at the grassroots.
Also Speaking after the competition, Olympian Mary Onyali who was a guest at the event and part of the Initiator of the scholarship project was pleased with the pool of talents in the tournament.
Sponsor of the competition and former Vice President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Alhaji Tunde Abdulkareem commended all the participants and urged sports loving Nigerian to emulate Mary Onyali in discovering talents from competitions
12-year-old Latifat Ahmed whose father is late and mother a petty trader and 11-year-old Kabirat Oyewale were granted scholarships after winning the 100 meters and 400meters gold in the Championship.
Ire-Podun local government placed 1st overall with 270 points, 2nd place went to Edu local government with 170 points while Ilorin west took 3rd with 160 points.
Cash price of ten thousand naira was given to winners of the gold medal, Silver medalists took home five thousand Naira while Bronze winners earned two thousand five hundred naira.
Many pupils and spectators also won different food items and house hold utensils like bags of rice, cartoons of indomie, generator set, standing fans etc through raffle draw.
The tournament which had over 2000 pupils from the 16 local governments of the state in participation yielded several potential future world beaters with two of the pupils gaining scholarships for their secondary education.
