ICCIA President, Edward Olutoke Promises To Complete Abuja Handball Court In April

ICCIA President, Dr. Edward Olutoke Promises To Complete Abuja Handball Court In March 2022 ….Sets Up Handball Team And First Handball Supporters Club By Niyi Busari Ambassador Dr. Edward Olutoke, President Ikeja Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture and the MD/CEO Responsible Leaders Concepts Ltd. has promised to complete the handball court at the Old Parade Ground Area 10, Abuja latest by March 2022, BSNSports.com.ng reports. Dr Edward also promises to raise a handball team in Abuja that will compete in national competitions and hopefully bring smiles on the faces of Abuja residents. He also unveiled the first Handball Supporters Club in Nigeria on Monday. In an interview with press men, he said, “Nigeria was declared as a poverty capital of the world, it’s annoying that they can even call a great nation like Nigeria the poverty headquarters of the world. Something is fundamentally wrong with that. So we are using everything possible to fight poverty and one of such is Sport. We know Sport has the capacity to pull people out of poverty. You can imagine the footballers we have, the kind of money they make all over the world. And then how many people they are helping in the society. We can take handball to that level also. So we are forming the handball club called Poverty Fighters Handball Club in FCT. He added, “I’ve just been invited to the board of the Handball Association in FCT. We can look at this young guys, I've heard a lot of stories about them, they train always no competition, most of them have no source of income, we can pull ourselves together and lift them up. We will lift their spirit up and that’s the reason for the club we are forming so that they will be duly engaged. We will put them on salary and actively put them to good use. “In our team, Poverty Fighters Squad, we use three things to fight poverty, we use Agriculture, Housing and Entertainment Sport. Sports is very key for us. During the COVID lockdown, God was passing a message that these are the three most important things in life, when you have food to eat, place to sleep and you have something to keep your sanity together, the health people would say everyone should exercise, without entertainment most of us would have run mad. Five months in the same spot, you can’t travel. All the cars you were buying, they were useless, nobody was using them, the designer wears and shoes, even the mighty auditoriums we claim we are building for God were all deserted. God was passing a very strong message to all of us but I wonder how many people got that message. there are only three things that are so important in life, have food, where to sleep and some form of entertainment which includes Sports. “We’ve talked briefly with the council and we’ve pushed some ideas to them already. I’ve met creative people in that department who are actually willing to make things happen. The first thing we are going to do, is to pay attention to the old parade ground where teams are training, we need to turn it around. That place is facility in waste and I marvelled at how we just left those huge assets like that. We’re going to turn the court around and by God’s Grace I’m sure work will start by next week. We are going to remodel the place. “I have spoken with the Contractor, we are talking with them already and before the end of March that place will wear a new look, God willing. Apart from facilities, the major materials we have are these young guys, we need to build them, develop all of them, like I explained earlier in the hall, we are going to start paying unemployed people #10,000 every month till they get employed. Our team players will have different salaries. We will work with everybody as much as possible let’s give them shoulders to lean on as they struggle through life, those of us God has helped a little bit let’s help others stand on their feet in life so that when they get there, they can also help people. The message we preach here is genuine love to humanity, if you truly love people, you see the level of pains and poverty in a society like this and still be sleeping well, your God can open up your mind to develop a system that will practically take people out of poverty one after the other. “I’m actually shocked that we don’t have Handball Supporters Club all this while. It is shocking to me because these guys go everywhere and I noticed in handball matches we just see dull moments and only few people come to see the matches and I say boldly that this game is as important as football. We can take handball to that level where it becomes an alternative sport the country can be known for. Handball is important because you use every part of your body to do this, including your hand and leg, it's a team sport that builds love and easy communication among people, handball has its own special language so it kills ethnicity, tribalism and religious bigotry. We want to push handball to that level people will be trooping to our courts to watch matches. We’ve launched one tonight to the of God and service to humanity and we are happy to take it from there. We may not know who to talk to immediately but let’s start, if there are handball matches, we sponsor them to go and cheer them up to go to the court and be a part of it. We will build it to that point that people will find what to do in life in the supporters club. We must build to the world standard. God did not create us differently, ordinary people can also do great things, with determination. I will only appeal to the press, especially sports journalist to please give us a little space in your kingdome, you set the agenda and talking points for the society, you already created the image of football as the only sport in Nigeria, please give handball a chance, let's change the narrative together and our nation will be better for it. I thank you all.” He concluded.