Mr John Mallo, the Village Head of Butura in Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau, has organised a football tournament to promote peace and unity among people in the area.
The village head said at the grand finale of the event that it was aimed at instilling virtues of love and peaceful coexistence among the younger generation.
He explained that the choice of a tournament was to encourage people to imbibe the spirit of sportsmanship in their daily interactions with one another, as that would promote togetherness in their various communities.
“Every community will have peace if we imbibe the spirit of sportsmanship, because only in sports you will suffer defeat but yet congratulate your opponent without rancour.
“It is in sports that there is no winner and loser; sport teaches us to be understanding, loving and progressive.
“This is why we decided to bring together youths in our various communities in this tournament as a way of preaching peace, love and unity among our people,” he said.
Mallo, who promised to make the tournament an annual event, urged other communities within the locality and the state in general to emulate his strategy in promoting peaceful co-existence.
The village head had presented a cash donation of N600,000 to the winning team, N400,000 to the runners-up while the team that came third went home with N200,000 and other teams that participated were given N30,000 each.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 12 teams participated in the tournament, with Mazat FC winning the trophy and Chikam FC emerged as runners-up. (NAN)
