Musa battles Omeruo, Ajibade for footballer of the year gong

• It’s Brume, Amusan, Udoh Gabriel in track/field
• Ambode, Okowa, Wike jostle for governor of the year title

Super Eagles striker, Ahmed Musa will battle his teammate, Kenneth Omeruo and the captain of the female U-20 team (Falconets), Rashidat Ajibade for the prestigious Nigerian Sports Award Footballer of the Year.

Organisers of the award said in Lagos yesterday that they received over two million nominees this year, the highest number in the history of the Award.

Chairman of the award panel, who is also the Chairman of Lagos State Sports Commission, Dr. Kweku Tandoh said yesterday that the 2018 edition of the award, which is the sixth edition, would hold on November 16 at Eko hotel in Lagos.

The Sports Governor of the Year category has pitched Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode against his counterparts from Delta, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, and Rivers State, Nyesom Wike.

Long jumper, Ese Brume will face hurdler, Oluwatobiloba Amusan and Joy Udoh-Gabriel for the Track and Field Athlete of The Year award, while the male and female national basketballs teams, D’Tigers and D’Tigress will battle the Super Eagles for the Team of the Year award.

Shedding light on the process for selection of the nominees, Tandoh noted that the final list of nominees were done on Tuesday by all award panel members after a careful scrutiny of the entries received.

“We are quite excited that public interest on the award has grown significantly given the number of nominations received this year for the awards. For us, we have taken time to look at the nominees for the different categories and I can proudly say that the nominees selected for the categories deserve to be winners by all standard,” he said.

There are other categories of the awards, which includes Racket Sports Person of the Year (Lawn Tennis, Table Tennis, Badminton, Squash), Team Sports Person of the Year, Coach of the Year, Combat Sports Personality of the Year (Karate, Judo, Taekwondo, Wrestling, Boxing), Wrestler of the Year, Discovery of the Year, Sports Administrator of the Year and Para Sports Person of the Year.