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By Abiodun Adewale
Ex-international and task force chairman of the Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria, Harrison Jalla, has advised the Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, to resist the temptation of appointing a relative as the next chairman of the Delta State Sports Commission, The PUNCH reports.
This comes following media reports (not The PUNCH) that sports enthusiasts in the state called on the Governor to appoint one of the aspirants to the position, Onoriode Oborevwori, his brother, to succeed the outgoing DSSC chairman Tonobok Okowa.
Okowa’s tenure will expire at the end of February after spending eight years in office. He took over in February 2016 during the tenure of former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who is his brother.
Before Okowa, former President, Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, was also in office as the sports commission boss between 2007 and 2015, during the tenure of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, who is his in-law.
In the wake of the trend, Jalla advised the new Governor to look in the direction of qualified technocrats and ex-internationals for the position.
“High-flying Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori must jettison the norm of appointing brothers and in-laws as chairmen of the Delta State Sports Commission, if he wants to relaunch Delta State as the cradle of sports in Nigeria,” Jalla said.
“The sports commission is the most sensitive sector in any state because it deals directly with the youths. The state is blessed and littered with technocrats that would match the Governor’s vision of a new Delta State where sports would take its pride of place.”
However, an official of the Delta State Government told our correspondent that Oborevwori would not
“Yes, we heard some people want him (Oborevwori) to appoint his brother as the DSSC boss but the Governor is not that kind of person. He believes that the best people should be given the opportunity to do their jobs,” our source said.
Delta State has dominated the Nigerian sports spectacle in recent years, winning the last three editions of the National Sports Festival (Abuja 2018, Edo 2020 and Asaba 2022) while they also won the National Youth Games on home soil in 2023.