As the preparations for the forthcoming Katsina and Yola polo tournaments get under- way, the Facility Committee of the Nigerian Polo Federation has concluded arrangements to inspect polo pitches across the country to ensure they are up to standard.
Facility Committee Chairman, Mo- hammed Baba, who confirmed the de- velopment, said that the nationwide inspection tour would take his com- mittee to major polo grounds across the country with Katsina Polo Club as the first port of call.
Baba, who is also the National Trea- surer of the NPF, explained that since the next tournament gallops off in Kat- sina next month, his committee was heading to the Usman Nagogo ground to make sure the ground was in perfect shape ahead of the tournament billed for last weekend of July.
The committee, whose members were drawn from Abuja and Port Harcourt, is also scheduled to inspect the foremost Lamido Musdafa Polo Ground in Yola and the legendary Murtala Mohammed Square in Kaduna in the first phase of the inspection tour.
The second phase, would take the committee to Jos and Port Harcourt where the first polo festival of the year usually comes up early January at the GRA Polo Ground.
In setting up the all important com- mittee, the polo ruling authority, NPF, had expressed the desire to ensure that polo pitches in Nigeria were trans- formed to world-class standard.
NPF President, Francis Ogboro, who urged the committee to be firm in dis- charging its responsibility, expressed confidence that soon Nigerian polo fields would compare favourably with the best around the world.
“Ensuring Nigerian polo pitches compare favourably with those ob- tained in the developed nations is not an impossible mission,’’ he said, noting that work had commenced on the Kaduna polo pitch with a view to ensuring that it attains an international standard.
“We want polo facilities to be in good shape, and not only in Kaduna but across the country,” he insisted.
The new season, billed to splash off the prestigious and the glamorous Nigerian polo tour, would take off in Katsina, revered as the “Home of Nigerian Polo”, before heading North East for Yola international polo festival in the ancient kingdom of Adamawa.
From Yola, the train would return to the north central for the Kaduna international tournament, which is home to Africa’s oldest polo prize, the 400-year-old Georgian Cup, before rounding off the year in Jos for the Winter polo carnival.
The highly competitive national tour would make a stopover in Abuja for the Carnival polo fiesta in November, before rounding off the year 2016 in style with the Jos winter polo tournament whose renaissance is receiving serious attention from all stake holders.
