Team Bauchi have emerged winners of the North-East Development Commission (NEDC) Secondary Schools Sport Festival’s football event after beating Team Gombe 2-1 in the final yesterday.
The final match played at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium, Bauchi ended goalless in the first half but on resumption, Hosts Bauchi drew the first blood scoring the opener and double their lead few minutes later.
The Gombe team thereafter piled up pressure on the Bauchi defence causing a foul which resulted in a penalty that was neatly converted to reduce the tally to 2-1.
Efforts by the two teams to increase the goal tally were thwarted as Bauchi held on to their lead to clinch gold.
The six states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe all participated in the football event of the tournament.
The managing director of the North East Development Commission, Alh. Mohammed G. Alkali, said the competition was organised to promote unity, peace and regional integration, as well as build adequate manpower for a 21st century Northeast economy.
Alkali, who was represented by head of scholarships, training and capacity building, Barr. Khalifa M. Lawan, said the commission is geared to address the poor human development indices, high illiteracy rate and high poverty levels of the sub-region.
Alkali said, “One of the fund’s mandates is the promotion of sports for youth development. Sports have been proven to be an effective tool for bringing communities together and fostering social cohesion and peace-building.”
He observed that given the situation in the sub-region, where there are many challenges of mistrust and suspicion, sports can be leveraged in bridging fractured relationships across social, cultural and religious divides within the communities and inculcating a sense of shared identity and fellowship amongst youths in the region.
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