Wife of former governor of old Rivers State and Queen of Twon Brass Kingdom in Brass local government area of Bayelsa State, Dr Josephine Alfred Diete-Spiff, says her foundation has empowered teenage secondary school girls in Bayelsa to shun violence and harmful practices through football.
Mrs Diete-Spiff stated this yesterday at the grand finale and award giving ceremony of her maiden Female Soccer Cup Championship 2024 among secondary school girls in Bayelsa State at the Samson Siasia Stadium in Yenagoa.
Commending the girls from Ogbo Memorial Grammar School Ikebiri for their exceptional performance after they defeated St Jude’s Girls Secondary School, Onopa, to emerge champions, she said that the female tournament was put up to make sure the girlchild shuns bad practices and get stheir mind focused on something more productive.
“We are really happy we are tapping from the rural areas. This week of games has fostered oneness, solidarity, unity in diversity and inclusion among the participating schools. It helped our young school girls discover and nurture their footballing talents, rekindling joy, exhilaration and a sense of unity among the citizens of Bayelsa State.
“This experience has instilled a competitive spirit in our girls, encouraging alertness and helping them to shield themselves from anti-social behaviour while they meaningfully fight for victory on the pitch,” she said.
The chairman of the occasion and former speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Hon Tonye Isenah, also called on well-meaning Bayelsans to key into empowering the girlchild in different fields to ensure that they pushed to limelight educationally and sports wise.
“Let us catch them young. For me, it’s time to separate these ones from the ones that are above them. We have gone into serious moral decadence in the country and even here in Bayelsa. For whatever reason, our boys have decided to go into yahoo and the rest of them; we need to take these ones off from them,” the former speaker said.
