(Georgina Adegbie, NAN)
James Lalu, The Executive Secretary of National Commission for Persons with Disability, said the commission would work with the Nigeria Para-Soccer Federation (NPF) to make the sport an international game.
Lalu told newsmen on Saturday in Abuja at the closing ceremony of the eighth edition of the World Polio Para-Soccer Tournament that the sport needed to grow beyond Nigeria.
He added that this was what was needed to enhance the rapid development of the game.
“We will by this make sure all the 36 states have teams which will participate in the next edition of the championship.
“We want to make the sport grow beyond Nigeria. It is fantastic and very beautiful to see these people playing their games with joy. Truly, there is ability in disability,” Lalu said.
He said they would work with the Federation to make sure that the ninth edition of the competition would be more interesting than this year’s edition.
The commission’s executive secretary also congratulated the founder and president of the federation for the success of the tournament.
“I congratulate Misbahu (Didi). We are proud of you. The next edition will be better than this. We will ensure the ninth edition will be more glamorous.
“I congratulate the winners of this year’s competition (Kano team) for the job well-done, I’m very proud of you.
“You demonstrated your skills, and we will work with the federation to look for people that will sponsor the subsequent editions of the competition,” he said.
Didi, who is president of the federation, in his closing remarks thanked the ministry and the Minister of Youth and Sports Development for their support in the success of the tournament.
“We started and ended well the eighth edition of the championship. We thank all the participants and their state governments for taking part in this historical event.
“We thank the minister and the ministry for giving us this space to organise this event.
“We equally thank our partners, the Nigeria Rotary International Committee for givng us their support and who have been our partners for good eight years.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the eighth edition of the World Polio Day National Para-Soccer Championship which started on Wednesday ended on Saturday.
