Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, has given cash rewards to the victorious state team to the recent para games.
Bayelsa State emerged champions of the first National Para Games held at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja with a total of 93 medals.
A breakdown shows that the team won 31 gold, 30 silver and 32 bronze medals at the championship.
Speaking after the state’s weekly jogging exercise at the Samson Siasia Stadium on Thursday morning, the governor thanked members of the team for making the state proud.
A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, disclosed that gold medalists were rewarded with N300,000, silver medalists N200,000 while bronze winners got N150,000.
Coaches in the different categories also got similar amounts while participants that did not win medals were given N50,000 each.
Governor Diri urged the team to continue practising in order to maintain its winning tempo.
He thanked Bayelsans for keying in to the weekly jogging exercise tagged “Prosperity Walk” and called on more people to participate to improve their health and physical fitness.
His words: “On behalf of your government and the good people of Bayelsa State, we congratulate you. We say thank you and urge you to keep winning for your state.
“This is the first edition of the para games in Nigeria and Bayelsa emerged first. Thank you for making your state proud.
“For all those who won gold, you will get N300,000, silver N200,000, and bronze winners N150,000.
“Also, all who participated, whether you won medal or not, you will go home with N50,000. Same goes to all the coaches in the different categories . If you are a coach of any gold winner, you equally get N300,000. Same applies to silver and bronze medalists.”
The Bayelsa helmsman also presented jerseys to the 206 teams registered to participate in the 2022 edition of the Prosperity Cup Tournament.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Hon. Daniel Igali, said the state currently has the largest grassroots football tournament in Nigeria, which was due to the revolution going on in the state.
He expressed the optimism that the current feat would be built upon to achieve better results.
“We currently have the largest grassroots football tournament in Nigeria. That attests to the revolution going on in Bayelsa State.
“Bayelsa is currently the home of sports in Nigeria. We have upstaged the bigger names. Hopefully, at the end of the year, we will show our true colours again,” Igali stated.
