By Ojomu Idowu
Kwara Amputee Soccer Team were full with joy after receiving half a million naira as a reward for their outstanding performance at the first para-national sports festival, which was held last year in Abuja.
Players and officials with limb and hand defects known as amputee soccer, the most exciting non-regular football game, have registered their appreciation to the Governor of Kwara State, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, for the cash gift delivered to them by the Executive Chairman of the Kwara State Sports Commission, Mallam Bolakale Adisa Magaji.
The Amputee Soccer National Team captain, who is also the coach for the Kwara State Amputee Football Team, was full of praise for the Executive Governor of Kwara State for fulfilling the promise made to the team after winning the gold medal at the maiden edition held last year in Abuja.
According to Sarafadeen Olalekan Oyeleke in an exclusive chat with Sportspro News, as an indigene of Irra in the Oyun Local Government Area of Kwara state, he commended the governor for the cash gift and promised to do better with his team as they begin another amputee soccer event this year.
He specifically thanked the Executive Chairman of the Kwara State Sports Commission, Mallam Bolakale Magaji, for his leadership role and motivation to continue winning laurels for the state of harmony.
Olalekan Sarafadeen argued that amputee soccer has grown to a high level in the state, and the support from his excellency boosts the morale of the players to win national and international competition.
He disclosed that the Kwara State Amputee Association, under the leadership of Alhaji Abdulrahman Giwa, the association’s chairman, and Funsho Zakari (SK Dan-Alhaji), had further mapped out strategies to popularize the game of amputee in all the local governments of Kwara State.
He then charged parents whose children are deformed in the area of a limb or hand cut not to hide their wards but to allow them to take an active part in the game that can fetch Nigeria medals not only in Africa but across the globe.
He stressed the need to capture people with amputee disabilities to come out and register with the association so that the basic on how to play the game will be deployed to who-be players as the amputee association prepare for the new 2023 loaded amputee calendar.
Mainly, interested parents who wish to register their amputee children are advised to contact the Kwara State Amputee Association at the Kwara State Sports Commission located inside the Kwara State Stadium or call the following numbers: 07069526567, 08055957160, 07036593895.
