ABUJA: Nigeria Customs Service on Friday defeated the Nigerian Navy 2-0 to become the winners of the 2017 Annual Ships and Ports Maritime Cup competition. Also Josephdam beat Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) to win the third place match. The match played at the Legacy pitch of the National Stadium was exciting and with minimal injuries. In the third place match Chibueze Haddy of Jersey no 26, scored the first goal in the 50th minute of the first half while Jelil Hafiz increased the score for Josephdam in the 70th minute of the 2nd half to make it 2-0 against NPA. For the finalists, Abubakar Michal, Customs goal poacher, scored the first goal for the Customs in the 15th minute of the first half while Hafiz Adediran of Jersey no 3 nailed the hope of the Naval team to ever clinch the cup in the 80th minute of the game by letting in the second goal. This year’s competition was quite entertaining as 61 goals were scored in all. Out of the 61 goals, Customs Abubakar Michal scored 13 to become the highest scorer in the competition.
Abubakar scored the fastest goal in the match against Navy in the opening competition which he did under 2minutes. With this victory, Customs has won the cup for the record fifth time. The first time they won it was in2011, then 2012, 2013 and 2016. Besides winning the third place match, Josephdam won the fairplay trophy for incuring the least yellow card in the competition. Co-ordinator of the programme, Eucharia Udoaka of SHIPS & PORTS, said this year’s competition was impressive as the players were coordinated and well behaved in the field of play. “You notice that there were little or no injuries. You see the friendly manner in which the players approached the game and it was quite lovely.” She said that with the sanity that was prevalent in this year competition, SHIPS & PORTS expects that more companies would participate in the next year’s game to give it more colouring. Customs Coach Monsiru Adebayo Soetan said he was happy but was not surprised that his team won. “When you come into a competition you play to win. I came to the Academy me here to learn coaching. So it was not just by chance. I have won the cup for keeps. We won it again this time. I will be disengaging from the Customs by December this year, otherwise I would still have won it for keeps the second time next year.”
He commended SHIPS & PORTS for organising a competition like this as it helps companies in the maritime industry to know each other better. All the dignitaries that attended the closing competition promised to be part of next year’s competition. The kick-off was done by Mrs Magaret Orakwusi, Chairman Morbod Group, one of the supporters of the competition. Other dignitaries at the that graced the occasion were Charles Okaga of the NPA, who is also the Chairman Committee of Team Managers for the competition, Captain Friday Ture, Deputy Director of Sports Nigeria Navy, Capt. J.A Oyewumi, Managing Director Dangote Ports Operations, Ayo Egbetola, Deputy General manager, Dangote Ports Operations, Jerry Attah, Public Relations Officer, Federal Operations Unit, Zone, A, Nigeria Customs Service and Ignatius Nweke, Deputy Director, Public Relations, Nigeria Shippers Council, who represented, the Executive Secretary.
