The Nigerian Minister for Youths and Sports Solomon Dalung says that he’s happy that Okpekpe 10 km race has come to stay for a long time.
The minister also affirmed that the race has helped boost the economy of Edo State, while also helping to empowered the youths of the state financially.
However, the minister who’s about to leave office in a few weeks heaped praises on the organisation of the race and urged Edo State and sponsors to sustain the event.
“I am happy that the quality of the athletes that have been participating in this Okpekpe 10km race has helped raise the status of the race.
“Some of the time returned in the competition is quite encouraging. The competition is one of the major competitions I would remember for a long time to come.
“Sometimes its a bit difficult to evaluate the value or contributions of sports because we are a community that still consider sports as recreation. But if one takes the statistics of what Nigeria has benefitted from this Opekpe race, I would say its encouraging.
“Let’s take the tourism aspect of this competition year in year out we have so many athletes that have attended this competition from all over Africa and have visited Okpekpe. That has brought so much to our foreign reserves earnings.
“It has also empowered the youths of this country financially through winning a huge sum of money as winners of their respective competitions”.
