By Lucky Isibor
The Police Football Club (Police FC) of Benin has emerged the winner of the second edition of the Kada Unity Football tournament for military and security agencies in Edo State.
The Police FC which is the defending champions of the tournament emerged winners ot the tournament after beating the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps Football Club (FC) by 4 goals to 2 on Friday, 14 February at the Chief Lucky Igbinedion Football pitch inside the Oti Resorts in Benin City.
The Nigerian Air Air Force (NAF) trashed the Directorate of State Security (DSS), to win the third place match which preceeded the finals.
In his remarks, the financial and sponsore of the tournament, two term Executive Governor of Edo State, Chief Lucky Igbinedion noted that the tournament was a success adding that it has fostered unity among the military and paramilitary agencies in the State whi h is the main objective of the tournament.
While appreciating the various teams for the discipline they exhibited during the tournament, former Governor praised the march officials for the fair officiating that characterised the tournament.
“The tournament was very successful and I am very happy that everything went smoothly, it has been very entertaining, all the teams participated fairly, equitably and the officiating was excellent; the players conducted themselves very well. It has been a fair tournament and it has achieved the purpose for organising it, that is bringing unity among the military and paramilitary agencies in the state”.
Reacting to their victory, the officer in charge of sports in the Edo State Police Command, Deputy Suprintedent of Police (DSP) Akogun stated that they in the Edo State Command are very excited that their team was able to defend the title they won in the first edition of the tournament, assuring that they’ll put in more effort to defend the title in the next edition.
“We in the Nigeria Police are excited that we are able to defend the title successful by winning the second edition of the tournament. We appreciate the organisers for organising the Kada Unity Cup. We are very happy, it was a tough one, we had to train harder because we knew that other teams will come up strongly; so we doubled their trainings. Our victory shows that hard work pays; that’s why we are able to lift the trophy the second time. We look forward to defend our title in the next tournament”.
In an interview, the highest goal scorer of the tournament, Buhari Umar of the Nigerian Air Force whose team won the third place march, thanked the Commander of the 107 Air Maritime Group and the coach for giving him the opportunity to participate in the tournament. He also appreciated his team mates for their cooperation.
High point of the closing ceremony was the presentation of the Kada Unity Cup to the winners, the Nigeria Police and presentation of cash prices of One Million Naira to the champion will the first runner-up, the NSCDC and the second runner-up, the Nigeria Air Force were presented cash award of Seven hundred fifty thousand Naira and five hundred thousand Naira respectively.
The Kada Unity Cup for military and paramilitary agencies in Edo State, kicked off on Friday, 7 February with ten participating teams, including, Nigerian Army, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, the Nigeria Police, Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Department of State Security (DSS), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Federal Fire Service.