A significant crisis looms in Okaka Ward One, Ilorin South Local Government Area of Kwara State due to the annual Ramadan football competition held in the area.
The football competition is held yearly at the St Michael Primary School, Sakama area of Ilorin metropolis, during the holy month of Ramadan.
However, Daily Post reports that this year’s event scheduled to commence on March 15, 2024, may turn bloody as the Okaka community leaders have kicked against the competition due to the damage inflicted on the host school each year.
While the organisers of the competition have vowed to go ahead with the competition even as the school’s ten classroom blocks undergo renovation, the Okaka community is ready to resist the take-off of the football competition on the scheduled date.
In an interview with DAILY POST in Ilorin on Sunday, Chairman of the Community Policing, Niger Road, Okaka Ward One, Yushau Dolapo Salihu, said “the case we are talking about concerns one of our schools, St Michael Primary School, Sakama, Okaka ward in Ilorin South Local Government of Kwara state.
“The school is used for football competition every year for the Ramadan period; they start from the beginning to the end of the period.
“They started in 2011 and have been damaging the school during the yearly competitions without proper repairs after the contests.
“When they are playing, you know there is no way they can control the football, it will damage the roofing sheets, windows, among others.
“Aside that, activities around the school showed that Indian hemp smokers invade the school, burgle the doors and bring out desks and lockers of the pupils but do not return them to their rightful places after the competitions.”
The chairman said the community tried in vain to stop the anomaly after discovering that the children of the organisers of the competition don’t attend public schools but private schools.
“Children of our community’s fathers, and elders attend St Michael Primary School- a public educational institution, so the community leaders have decided to stop the organisers of the competition from further destroying the school.
“The school has 10 classroom blocks, and out of the number, only two were functional before the renovation exercise,” the chairman noted.
“We called a meeting of the community leaders which included the Alangua, Alhaji Suleiman, Imams, and elders of Okaka wards one and two where the decision to discontinue the Ramadan football competition was taken.
“We now wrote to the concerned authorities to come to the rescue of the school which was honoured as the Commissioner for Education, Hajia Saadat Modibbo Kawu suddenly mobilised contractors to site to renovate six of the damaged classroom blocks just two months ago.
“Again, the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, came to the rescue with the construction of additional two classroom blocks.
“That is where the crisis over the Ramadan football competition started by the organisers. They are saying they must play football by force despite the resistance by the community leaders.
“They have fixed March 15, 2024, as the kick off date, and there may be a serious crisis and breakdown of law and order if the government fails to intervene,”
Yushau warned.
He disclosed that the community has written to the state governor, the commissioner of police, the Department of State Services, the DPO, ‘C’ Divisional Police station and other concerned authorities on the matter.
Also speaking on the same issue to DAILY POST, Magaji Amin Tunrayo, an elder in the Okaka community, said they have been on the matter since 2011.
“Every year, a group comprising just four elements, who are products of the school, organise a yearly Ramadan football competition but end up destroying the St Michael Primary School, venue of the event,” he said.
He identified the members of the group as “one Abdulrasheed, another one popularly called F. O and one Abdulazzez.
“We have resolved as a community that the Ramadan football competition will not be held in that school again with the ongoing renovation exercise of the classroom blocks.”
In her reaction, the State Commissioner for Education, Hajia Saadat Modibbo Kawu, explained that those against and in support of the football competition had written to her office.
“When the organisers came, they brought a letter like an undertaking to protect the school’s property, assuring that with the protection, nothing is going to be affected in the school as a result of the football competition,” she said.
According to the commissioner, the organisers “pledged that if anything is going to be affected at all in the school, they are ready to fix it immediately.”
The commissioner said she asked the organisers to meet the aggrieved community leaders to reconcile their grievances and report to her office.
