Former Nigeria international Peter Rufai, Yoruba Nollywood star Jide Awobona and other entertainers were on hand on Saturday to help flag off the third edition of the Amuwo Games.
The games was officially flagged off with a torch parade from Amuwo Odofin Local Government and terminated at Amuwo Odofin Primary School Sports ground.
Chairman Amuwo Odofin Local Government, Engineer Valentine Buraimoh, House of Assembly Representative, his Chief of Staff Segun Idris, Honorable Mojisola Alli-Macaulay, and organizer of the games Seun Ayeni, as well as Indomix, K-Peace and JB were present and took part in the torch parade.
This year’s games kicked off with two football matches which saw defending champions Extension Dolphins face Festac Bulls while Mile 2 Hawks battled Festac Sharks.
Extension Dolphins beat Festac Bulls 5-4 on penalties and Mile 2 Hawks thrashed Festac Sharks 5-1.
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The schedule for today’s (Sunday) games are Tennis singles and doubles at the FHA Sports Club, football inside Unity Primary School, video game (soccer and combat) and the newly introduced 5-aside soccer.
The Amuwo Games which started in 2017 with the second edition in 2019, are scheduled to take place only in the weekends of November and will run from 6th to 28th.
Speaking before the commencement of the torch parade, Engineer Buraimoh said: “The purpose of the games is to keep our youths focus regarding the area of sport.
“ We are here to flag off and as you can see we have the legendary Peter Rufai in the house and also our dear honourable member of the most powerful Assembly in Nigeria, Honourable Mojisola Alli-Macaulay, we have the organizer of the games Seun Ayeni, We are planning to extend the games to other areas so that we wouldn’t be selfish in Amuwo, let it spread round Lagos State.“
He added:“Equally we have the councilor, Chief of Staff, the team of the Amuwo Games all set to make it a unique one and it will be a success.”
And speaking about this year’s edition, organizer of the games Ayeni said: “I feel excited, it’s going to be bigger than the last two editions because this time around we’ve gotten hold of a whole lot of stuff, a lot of planning activity and what to put in place.”
On the challenges faced in preparation for the games, he revealed: “Some of the challenges we faced are the volunteers. One culture that is dying in Nigeria is the fact that people no longer want to volunteer sincerely to any course.
“Yes, we understand there has to be money in form of compensation but that shouldn’t be the main reason to volunteer. People use to volunteer to courses but now we have youths who just want to while away time instead of getting into activities like this. And if you tell them to come on board the first question they will ask you is how much, instead of been part of something even though you won’t be paid.
“So that’s one of the thing that I’ve seen in the society that we need to focus on and see how to improve on and in this edition our manpower really dropped compared to last time.”
By James Agberebi
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