TheHILL | SPORTS | JANUARY 12.
Akwa Ibom state Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Sir Monday Uko has gifted the sum of Five Hundred Thousand Naira to the players and officials of Dakkada FC in appreciation for what he described as “sweet” victory over Nasarawa United in an NPFL match day five fixture played at the Samuel Ogbemudia stadium last Sunday.
Dakkada, who have been banished by the LMC to play their next three home matches in the city of Benin after one of their Assistant Coaches was found guilty of assaulting a match official at the end of a match day four home fixture against Remo Stars, triumphed 2-1 over Nasarawa United after 90+15 minutes of absorbing football despite being brandished two red cards.
Presenting the gift to the team during Wednesday’s training session in Uyo on behalf of the Commissioner, the Senior Special Assistant on Sports to the Governor, Elder Paul Bassey expressed Mr. Uko’s delight for the determination and team spirit that the team demonstrated to conjure up the victory and stated that it was a true reflection of the Dakkada spirit which has been brought to bear by Governor Udom Emmanuel.
“The Honourable Commissioner is very happy with you all and has asked me to thank you for typifying the Dakkada philosophy of Governor Udom Emmanuel by defying the odds to record your first-ever victory over Nasarawa United”. “Going forward, the Honourable Commissioner has asked me to encourage you to face your football and never comment about the performance of referees as it is their exclusive right to custody and interpret the laws of the game in the best way possible”, the veteran sports administrator said.
Mr. Bassey who also made an additional, personal donation of One Hundred Thousand Naira to the team leveraged the opportunity to further apologize to the Nigerian football community over the sad events which greeted Dakkada’s home match against Remo Stars and assured that modalities have been put in place to prevent any future recurrence of such incident.
“While urging you not to be weighed down by the regrettable negative events of the past few days the Honourable Commissioner is once again apologizing to the Nigerian football community especially the Nigeria Referees Association over that unfortunate incident of assault and has assured all and sundry of the total overhaul of the match day security structure before, during and after Dakkada’s future home matches”, Mr. Bassey added.
The victory, Dakkada’s first-ever over Nasarawa United, takes the Uyo-based outfit to seven points from five matches with a trip to Plateau United coming up next this Sunday.
