Benue and Niger States walked over Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at the end of the zonal qualifiers for states schools sports held for the zone in Keffi between December 13 and 15.
Plateau could not honour the zonal trials due to the twin bomb blasts which rocked the state. Parents of the wards afraid of possible attacks on the students rejected offers to release their children for the competition. Niger state walked over FCT after the nation’s capital team complained that they were not notified of the event by the NSSF secretariat in good time. With Plateau and FCT absent, Benue and Niger States played only a match which at the end saw students from Government Model School Bida defeating Mount St. Gabriel Secondary School Makurdi Benue Statewith a lone goal. The goal was scored in 3rd minute by Solomon Dogara.
Coordinator of the region 6 Etisalat U-15 Soccer Championship in Keffi, Usman Auta at the end of the competition confirmed that Niger state will represent the Keffi region in Lagos for the third stage of selection. The Nigeria School Sports Federation chairman in Nasarawa state also revealed that the most valuable player identified by the referees was Gold Peter from Niger State. He said with what he has seen of talents at display the children will get better polished if organizers will endeavor to produce more materials that will boast their image and Logo’s in subsequent competitions.
Auta commended Etisalat for the U-15 Soccer Championship initiative hailing the collaborative effort of Etisalat with the NSSF aimed at arriving at proper selection of U-15 age group boys for the soccer championship in the seven regions. He explained that the zonal selections were held to produce a winning school that will represent the zones at the headquarters in Lagos. The third stage of the selection he said would be carried out in Lagos to produce the school that will represent the country at international level.
Auta further highlighted that at the end of the competition, three best players would be selected from each school that participated at the regional selection. This he emphasized will avail each school the opportunity to be represented at both the state and national levels.
The coordinator said the officials were unbiased in the screening of the boys.
