By Charles Eke Ogbonnaya Winners of the Governor Okezie Ikpeazu Unity Competition for Abia North Zone have been rewarded with cash prizes in fulfilment of the pledge of the sponsor, Sir Ude Oko Chukwu, the deputy governor.
Presenting the cash donations Sir Oko Chukwu announced cash awards of N500,000, N300,000 and N200,000 for the gold, silver and bronze trophies won by Umunneochi, Ohafia and Isuikwuato Local Government areas respectively and said that the competition was organized in honour of the governor aimed at ensuring unity among youths in Abia North Zone as well provide recreation for them.
Sir Oko Chukwu disclosed that the competition to a great extent achieved the objective it was meant for as budding talents were discovered and promised to sustain the sponsorship of competition in subsequent years.
The deputy Governor who appreciated the organizers of the competition for exhibiting great commitment and sacrifice that led to a successful tournament also congratulated all the teams that won and attributed their feat to hard work and resilience and urged them to put in more efforts subsequent outing. In their remarks, the commissioner for Sports , Dr Martins Okoji and the State Director of Sports, Mr Isaac O.
Isaac said that the high sum of redemption amount in the tournament motivated players and thanked the deputy governor for sponsoring the football competition and called on other stakeholders and political appointees from the zone to emulate and support him.
Earlier in his speech, the Chairman of the organizing committee of Okezie Ikpeazu unity cup competition, Coach Emeka Ubani expressed delight at the actualization of the redemption and disclosed that one hundred percent neutrality were maintained throughout the tournament and thanked the winning teams for exhibiting great sense of sportsmanship.
