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By Cosmas Ezeoke

In its quest to promote the game of badminton at the grassroots level in the Federal Capital Territory, the FCT Badminton Association have appealed to minister for provision of facilities to enable the association excell in its mandate.

The Chairman, FCT Badminton Association, Mr Gabriel Gbayan made the appeal during a courtsey visit to the Acting Director, FCT Sports Council, Mr Lukas Istifanus on Monday.

Accompanied in the visit by members of his board, Mr Gbayan lauded the FCT Sports Director for his pragmatic leadership initiatives that have seen the progress of badminton and other sports in the federal capital.

Mr Gbayan noted that the visit was to congratulate Mr Istifanus on his appointment as the Acting Director of FCT Sports Council and to further make appeals to the leadership of FCT to come to their aid in providing infrastructure for the game of badminton to thrive.

“Basically we are here to congratulate our Acting Director, for support that he has received from the Federal Capital Territory Administration for this wonderful appointment. As a very receptive board, we deemed it worthy in our meeting to come and give support to the Director.

“He has been on seat for sometime and despite the situation in 2020 and early 2021 due to coronavirus, alot of achievements have been recorded in the FCT sports from them till date.

“There were three national sporting events that took place within the period, that the Acting Director did very well. The Edo 2021 National Sports Festival, the National Youth Games in Ilorin and the last one was the the Para Games held few weeks back.

“The FCT won gold in the National Youth Games and also got good medal at the Para Games.

“We want to make few appeals to the FCT administration particularly the Honourable Minister of FCT, Alhaji Bello Mohammed, to confirm our Acting Director, as substantive director of sports.

“To also reward the athletes who did well in various national competitions. Let them be encouraged for further national competitions.

“We don’t have a good badminton playing ground in FCT. We only have an outside court, if he can fix the Indoor Sports Hall, we will be very glad. It will encourage our athletes for training and competitions,” he said.

The chairman noted that the board is doing a lot in encouraging and supporting the players for national tournaments.

“As we make appeal to the leadership of FCT to out structure in place, especially badminton to promote the game of not nationally but also internationally.

In his response, the Acting Director of Sports, Mr Lukas Istifanus appreciated the kind gesture of the management of the Badminton Association for the visit and acknowledged the association for their never-ending efforts to see that badminton in the FCT is number one in the country.

He assured them that their request will be presented to the Honourable Minister and expressed confidence that they would receive positive response.

He seized the opportunity to thank the management for the efforts they are putting into sports in the FCT and urged them to pray for the growth of sports in Nigeria.