The Niger Delta Development Commission has been honoured by the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Rivers State Chapter in recognition of its efforts in the development of sports across the Niger Delta Region.

Speaking shortly after presenting the Award to the Managing Director, Dr Christian Oboh, the Director, Youths, Sports, Culture and Women Affairs, Dr Princewill Ekanem said the Award was not a surprise, going by the commission’s record of achievements in sports development, because according to him” What we have done in the area of sports over the years is actually enormous”.

He enumerated some of the competition sponsored by the commission to include tiger hunts for golfers, handball among secondary schools, swimming and lawn tennis among others explaining that, “our efforts in handball produced two teams that represented Nigeria in the largest
handball carnival in the world; One of the teams got up to quarter finals for the first time.

Dr Ekanem stated that the various talents discovered at the NDDC sponsored swimming competition among secondary schools also showed class at the all Nigerian swimming competition. “I think it is in recognition of all of these that SWAN has decided to honour us”
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On the commission’s sports programmes in the year ahead, he said “our current Managing Director is passionate about youth development of which sports is key, he has promised to support every sporting activity designed to develop the youths. For us this is a challenge, next year will witness aggressive sports programmes”.

He thanked SWAN for the award, assuring that this will spur the commission to do more.