President and founder of the prestigious Nigeria Pitch Awards, Shina Philips, has given reasons why his organization honoured the newly appointed Acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, with an award.
Speaking exclusively to The Point, the highly travelled sports administrator and MD/CEO of Matchmakers Consult International went down memory lane.
“We must realize that policing a country like Nigeria is never an easy job. Only a Police IGP with the right exposure, expertise and discipline and an eagled-eye focus can successfully lead the Force. Having said that, I will also say the Mohammed Adamu I know is brave, intelligent and professional; he has the capacity to lead the gallant men and women of the Police Force.
“He is a passionate and focused leader and I expect the Police Force under him to be absolutely focused on crime prevention. He did this when he was Commissioner of Police in Enugu when he encouraged the use of sports especially football to engage the attention of youths and stir them away from criminal activities.
“Also, I want people to know that the Nigeria Pitch Awards has always supported the Nigeria Police Force because they played pivotal roles in Nigerian sports. Remember the contributions of the Samuel Peters, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’, a former Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the world; remember Chioma Ajunwa, an Olympic gold medalist who is still a serving police officer; the late Sunday Bada, Sunday Adeleye, Sunday Oyarekhua and Kikelomo Ajayi a former captain of the Super Falcons and many other Police Officers who have brought sporting glories to Nigeria. So the Police, among security agencies in the country have taken the front role in promoting sports in the country,” Philips said.
“Secondly, we have followed the trail of success of the Police in the area of football and sports generally and have continued to identify and honour those individual police officers who have made tremendous efforts to improve the state of sports in the Police and in the country generally.
“In 2013 in Calabar, the Nigeria Pitch Awards honoured Mr. Gideon Akinsola, a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the security of the Super Eagles and the stadium during matches.
“In 2016, in Kaduna we honoured the then Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Sir Mike Okiro with an award. At that event, we had in attendance the Governor of Kaduna State Malam Nasir El-Rufai, the Honourable Minister of Youths and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung, the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Mr Amaju Pinnick, top members of the NFF Board and Super Eagles players led by Coach Samson Siasia and John Obi Mikel.
“Still in 2016, the Nigeria Pitch Awards honoured Mr Solomon Arase who was the Inspector General of Police at that time and Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, a Superintendent of Police and Police Public Relations Officer to the Enugu Police Command for his invaluable contributions in the use of football to engage the attention of youths who would have taken criminal activities. As a result of Amarizu’s contributions, the Police Machine FC, the Police football team made great exploits and recorded victories even over established teams like Rangers International. Incidentally, the Enugu Command football success was inspired by the current Ag. IGP when he was CP in Enugu,” Philips stated.
Philips finally assured Nigerians that Matchmakers Consult International will continue to support the Nigeria Police Force and further revealed that Africa LAMPS Awards which is scheduled to debut later in the year represents Legends of Arts, Management, Politic, Science, Sports and Security. And as organizers, they will collaborate with the Nigeria Police in order to continue to encourage officers to do more for their fatherland in sports development.
