Delta moves to revive Principals’ Cup, signs MoU with consultant

The Delta State Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a consultant, Hideaplux Limited, in a bid to revive Principals’ Cup soccer competition among secondary schools in the state.

Signing the MoU on behalf of the Government, Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Festus Agas, reiterated the commitment of the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa-led administration to human capacity development.

He congratulated Hideaplux Limited on the initiative, urging it, however, to source for sponsorship across the country for the competition to succeed.

On his part, Chief Executive Officer of Hideaplux Limited, Mr. Tony Oritse-Pemu, said the decision to revive the “abandoned Principals’ Cup competition” stemmed from the need to redirect the energies of talented students into productive ventures, including sports.

Pemu said: “From experience, I discovered that a lot of our youth need mental reset for them to be great. I was also able to identify the fact that our young people with great sporting talents no longer have a platform to showcase and grow their talent.

“As a result, they now channel their energy into social vices like cultism, brigandry, truancy and hooliganism, among others. So we thought of engaging one of the most effective platforms to use in tackling these negative trend and what came to our mind was the secondary schools being an environment where we have a lot of youth at their emerging stages in life.”

He added, “Our dream is to make this event a household name among secondary school students in the state and football lovers in Nigeria.”

The preliminary round of the competition billed to kick off in February next year would run through various stages, while the final is expected to be played on May 27, 2017.