Team Nigeria Heads For AAG Title Defence

After several hours of delay following unfavourable weather reports, the first batch of the 850-man contingent of Team Nigeria finally boarded a chartered Kabo Air Boeing 747 flight at about 12 noon, Friday, at the Hajj Camp of the Lagos International Airport, for Algiers, ahead of the opening of the 9th All Africa Games billed for 11 July. The second batch of the contingent is also expected to depart the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja to join their team mates later in the day. On hand to address the contingent when they assembled in Lagos on Thursday evening were the Director General of the National Sports Commission, Dr. Amos Adamu, the Managing Director of Team Nigeria, Alhaji Sule Ali-Baba, the President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, Engr. Habu Gumel and the Director of Sports in the commission, Chief Patrick Ekeji. Also on hand to pep-talk the team were the technical director of Team Nigeria and now commissioner for sports in Edo State, Brown Ebewele and the former Delta State commissioner for sports, Chief solomon Ogba, both of whom are responsible for the production of majority of the athletes that make up the team. Of particular attraction at the farewell ceremony was the CEO of Oceanic Bank, the leading sponsor of Team Nigeria, Chief (Mrs) Cecilia Ibru. Her bank put up a sponsorship of N40 million for the team ahead of First Inland Bank (N25 million), Soveriegn Trust Bank (N22 million)and Acess Bank (N10 million)all of which have expressed their confidence in the ability of the athletes to deliver. The Heart of Africa Foundation, the NTA and a couple of other organisations have also contributed in kind to the trust fund. According to Ali-Baba, after much deliberations, the board of the Team Nigeria Trust Fund finally approved a winning bonuses of N50,000 for gold; N30,000 for silver and N20,000 for bronze. Pointing out that this was against the initial idea of providing scholarship for such winners since not all the athletes are of school age, he said Team Nigeria would improve on its bonuses with more and more patronage from sponsors. According to the sports officials, an advance party of about twelve persons were already in Algeria to prepare the four games villages allocated to Nigeria.
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