Lucky Obukohwo Reporting
A frontline governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the Edo State 2024 governorship election, Asue Ighodalo, has said that he would invest more in the sporting sector to develop the state.
He disclosed this at the grand finale of the Asue Ighodalo Unity Gold Cup played at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin.
Ighodalo said that the tournament which saw the team Edo South emerging winner of the competition has demonstrated that there are a lot of talents in the youths and such should be harnessed to boost the economy of the state.
He said that when he becomes the governor of the state, he is going to revamp sporting activities in the secondary schools across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state with the view of inculcating the deserving leadership skills in them as the leaders of tomorrow.
“I am happy. The standard was better than I expected because we arranged the competition at short notice for all of the local governments to get their players together.
“I think it is really good and I am really impressed. The standard was high until they got the penalty kicks and I can understand what happened to the players at the penalty kicks.
“I think they were being intimidated but with a bit of coaching, I see as Edo State, we can get our place back in sports particularly football too.
“I saw really great talent among the players there, the goalkeeper for Edo South was marvelous, he could have played for any teams and the midfield players were very good.
“Edo Central, they had a number of interesting midfield players and strikers and I hope the Sport Commission will look at these players and the players of the other team and bring them together so that we can get ready for the next sports festival.
“One of the things we must also do, we must bring back school sports like the academicals, school sports athletics, school sports cricket, basketball and that is where our youths develop.
“They develop the spirit responsibility, competition and lossing like great sports people and that stills you and strengthens you for the future, disappoinment of life and goodness of life and you know that Edo State was always number one in all these things.
“So we need to go back to those glory days. I know that the Sport Commission is trying hard and we will get there but I am really impressed by what I see today. And I thank everybody that has worked on this, they have done marvelously well in the very short space of time and I thank the coaches too and the referees as well”, Ighodalo said.
The PDP governorship hopeful, said, for the state to retain its past glory in sports, all hands must be on the deck to make that happen.
“We should all work together as one, coaches, referees, trainers, players, administrators, and just bring Edo State to where it was and it is something that we will do and it will help us sell tourism, boost investments in our state, boost people’s views about the capability of our state.
“I am really proud of what I see here today”, Ighodalo said.
Speaking on why he decided to put the tournament towards the end of the year, he said
“I love sports and I love football . So I was just thinking that towards the end of the year, what can we do to ginger the youths? To just create an environment of enjoyment and environment feeling free that we are coming to the end of the year”,
Recall that Truth Media Communications, publishers of Truth Live News, collaborated with the Asue Ighodalo Support Groups both in the diaspora and across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state to make the tournament a soccer fiesta a reality.