Niger Delta Games: Abia, Imo gear up as Delta holds Summit for Coaches

Preparations for the  2^nd   Niger Delta Games,  Benin 2026, is already underway with Abia and Imo States setting up their Liaison Committees and ensuring athlete selection and compliance with regulations.

Harrison Ocholor, the Secretary of the Delta State Liaison Committee , met with the Coaches on Tuesday and urged  them to ensure that only the best athletes were selected to represent the state from a fair and competitive state’s  trials.

Ocholor told the coaches that the organizers of the Games, Dunamis Icon Limited and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has left no stone unturned in ensuring the process of selecting talents for the games followed the rules and regulations.

He enjoined them to study and make effective use of the technical booklet for the games issued to the coaches  during the meeting.

In Abia State, Sir Itiako Ikpokpo, the Co-Chairman of the Main Organising Committee,  inaugurated the State’s  Liaison Committee and challenged  them to implement all schedules of the games from athletes registration to local government and state trials.

Represented by the Project Director, Fred Edoreh, Ikpokpo  emphasised the importance of abiding by the regulations set forth for the games and warned that “age cheat and failure to present the required number of athletes for each sport will lead to disqualification of any offending state”.

Abia State Commissioner of Sports, Hon Ananaba Nwaobilor, assured that the state is in tandem with the objectives, rules and regulations of the Niger Delta Games and would go the extra mile to maintain, promote and defend them.

Nwaobilor who  spoke at the Aba Sports Club in Aba, described the games as having added impetus to the Governor Alex Otti-led government  to use sports as an instrument for the  emancipation of  the state’s  talented youths.

The Abia State Liaison Committee for the 2^nd  Niger Delta Games is chaired by the Commissioner of Sports, Hon Nwaobilor, with Hon Onyebuchi Chukwu as Secretary.

Comrade Obioma George, Director of Sports and Kingsley Kanu, Abia State’s  interim SWAN Chairman as members.

In Owerri, where the Imo State Liaison Committee was inaugurated at the office of the Imo State Commissioner for Sports, Ikpokpo, the Atanaru of Irri Kingdom, also harped on the age limit for athletes and charged members of the committee to ensure massive mobilisation and timely registration of athletes on the Games’ official portal, stressing that only duly registered athletes would be cleared to participate. Ikpokpo was again, represented by Edoreh, the Project Director.

In his remarks, the Imo State Commissioner for Sports, Hon. Obinna Onyeocha, commended the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and Dunamis Icon Limited for initiating and sustaining the Games for two consecutive years, describing the championship as a credible platform for talent discovery and development in the region.

Hon. Onyeocha noted that the Niger Delta Games align perfectly with the sports development vision of the administration of Governor Hope Uzodimma, assuring that Imo State is fully prepared to participate and comply with all rules and regulations guiding the competition.

Advertisement

 “It is the mandate of His Excellency, the Governor of Imo State, for us to go to the grassroots to discover talents, and these Games have come to help us achieve exactly that,” Onyeocha said.  “On behalf of the committee, I assure you that we will insist on quality, thoroughness, discipline and total compliance.”

The Imo State Liaison Committee is chaired by Onyeocha, with Hon. Willie Okolieogwo serving as secretary. Other members include the Director of Sports, Lady Justina Akpulo, and Kennedy Onwunali.