The immediate past Special Adviser to Gov Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, Mr Solomon Bonu on Monday urged the three tiers of government to engage youths in sports to checkmate their involvement in social vices and cyber crimes.
Bonu, who is the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate into House of Assembly from Badagry Constituency 1, gave the advice when he presented jersey and some sporting material to Badagry United Football Club in Badagry.
According to him, we can engage more youths in different sports in the country to curb the scourge of smuggling and other social vices.
“All we need to do is to encourage our youths to participate actively in any sports of their choice and then use our connection to help them to professional league.
“Some of them are very good and i am happy to be part of the youth development in Badagry.
“But it is a pity that the Federal Government is not paying attention to football in the grassroots.
“If we engage all these youths in different sporting activities, it will reduce their involvement in cyber crimes and other social vices,” he said.
He commended Comptroller Bello Jibo, the Area Controller of Nigeria Customs Service, Seme Area Command for initiating youths in Badagry into footballing.
“I want to use this opportunity to thank Jibo who is in charge of our border for founding the club in Badagry.
“If you look around, you can see that smuggling activities have reduced drastically in the area, some of my brothers have left smuggling for a legitimate business.
“Most of our youths are into footballing they have shunned smuggling and some of them are self-employed today, this is a good development,” he said.
Speaking, Jibo, who is the founder and initiator of the club, said his objective was to ensure youths in Badagry benefits from sports.
According to him, since the service is getting support from the community and the people around here.
“I am always interested in the progress of youths in Badagry, we decided to form the club to improve the well-being of youth around here,” he said.
Jibo commended the management team of the club for a job well done.
Mr Danladi Musa, the Sporting Director, Badagry United Football club, commended Jibo for providing monthly always for the team members.
Musa said that the team also received assistance from Alapa of Apa, Oba Adekanmi Oyekan, who had been given them vehicles to travel outside to play football.
The jersey and other materials were very to the Sporting Director of the club by Bonu with out members of the team in attendance.
