30th April, 2012
The Lagos State Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development, Wahid Oshodi, has cleared the air on the eligibility of school athletes for the forthcoming Lagos State Sports Festival, tagged Ibile Games.
The commissioner, who is also the chairman of the Main Organising Committee, MOC, for the games, said that the 20 schools sports approved by the Nigerian Schools Sports Federation will feature during the games.
Oshodi also made it clear that participation is not restricted to public schools run by Lagos State, but all Senior Secondary Schools operating in the state, be they Military, Federal, Special Education, Private Schools or run by tertiary institutions like the International School run by the University of Lagos, UNILAG.
He added that the impressive response of the schools and their eagerness to excel informed his directive to the Technical Committee to extend the closing date for registration, so that more schools will have the opportunity to let the world know what they are capable of achieving outside the classrooms, especially in sports.
Chairman of the Technical Committee, Babatunde Fatai Williams, disclosed that students will compete for honours in athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, chess, cricket, football, gymnastics, judo, karate, scrabble, squash, swimming, table tennis, tennis, taekwondo, volleyball and weightlifting.
Only deaf athletics and deaf table tennis are the special sports that will feature in the schools’ category.