NEDC to fight insurgency, promote unity through sports

The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has organised sports competitions for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) youths across the 27 Council Areas of Borno State to engage the youths and to discover talent at the grassroots level against insurgency. The Managing Director of the NEDC, Dr Mohammed Alkali, while addressing the dignitaries, participating teams and […]

The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has organised sports competitions for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) youths across the 27 Council Areas of Borno State to engage the youths and to discover talent at the grassroots level against insurgency.

The Managing Director of the NEDC, Dr Mohammed Alkali, while addressing the dignitaries, participating teams and their supporters before presenting the trophy and medals to the winning teams at the El-Kanemi Sports Centre, Maiduguri said sports activities remain the only unifying factors in the country.

Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) Football Club emerged winner of the Peace Cup competition in a penalty shootout to beat Kukawa Football Club, which emerged second, while Gubio Football team scored 11 goals to beat Askira Uba team, which scored 10  goals to emerge third and fourth positions respectively.  Both the final and semi-final were decided in a penalty shootout.

“The sporting competitions is to encourage our youths and engage them in meaningful activities as they plan to return to their respective communities and to promote sporting activities, as you know, the sport remains a formidable unifying factor in Nigeria and worldwide so we will continue to support the sports activities.

“We have also had training workshops for coaches and as time goes on, we are going to replicate this competition across all the states in the Northeast, he said.