NSF: Olopade, showers Ogun Scrabble team with cash

By Ifeanyi Eduzor

Former Ogun State Commissioner For Sports, Bukola Olopade has put smiles on the faces of the state’s Scrabble team to the 21st National Sports Festival tagged Delta 2022 when he showered them with cash on Monday.
Olopade, a consummate sports marketer as well as a renowned consultant and adviser, had a pep talk with the players and encouraged them to give their all to the sport they passionately love and the State of Ogun.
Before leaving the new Multi Purpose Hall of the Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba, Chief Olopade laced the faces of scrabble players with a big smile as he made some cash donation to the team that is currently second on the scrabble medals table at the Festival with one gold one silver and are certain to add to their tally later before the end of the competition.
The players were also gracious with words of appreciation for Olopade who is the man behind the marketing success story of the ongoing Festival.
In addition to the cash donation made to Scrabble Team Ogun, Chief Olopade also assured the Chairman of Ogun State Scrabble Association (OSSA), Adekoyejo Adegbesan of a major sponsorship deal for the association before the end of the year.
Our correspondent gathered that the sponsorship is in the region of ten million naira. This sponsorship, we understand will be used to stage a major National championship.
Ogun State Association (OSSA), under the leadership of Adekoyejo Adegbesan and supported by Lukeman Owolabi and a forward looking board is one of the most progressive and dynamic Association in Nigeria.
With a fully furnished and equipped office at the sports complex in Ijeja, Abeokuta, a standard playing hall, and an excellent media response team, OSSA is laying a very solid foundation for the game of words to blossom beyond the borders of the host of the 2024 National Sports Festival, Ogun State.
In October, a player and a coach was sponsored by Adekoyejo Adegbesan who was recently elected the President of Pan African Scrabble Association (PANASA), to the 14th African Scrabble Championship.
The trip to Lusaka, Zambia, was in two fold. First to expose the player to the highest level of the game on the continent and to help the coach Keep in touch with the latest development in the game of Scrabble.
The results recorded at the ongoing National Sports Festival is a clear testimony that the journey down south to Zambia is already paying off.