It was a keenly contested spelling competition among 60 primary and secondary school students from 20 local government and 37 local council development areas in Lagos state to produce the 13th One-Day- Governor in Lagos State.
At the end of the drilling encounters, Boadley Juwon Afolarin, 15, from Omole Senior Grammar School emerged first after beating off stiff competition from 51 other contestants in a contest that involved representatives drawn from 52 public schools in Lagos.
Abolaji Abudulraman, Community Junior High School, Ayobo, Ipaja and Bio Marvellous Ejiwon, Victoria Island Senior High School emerged second and third respectively.
Abimbola Fashola, first lady of Lagos State while speaking at the event where she presented the cash prize of N250,000 and a trophy to the first prize winner thanked Dufil Prima Foods plc for ensuring that the grand finale of the competition was a huge success. She stated that she was impressed with Indomie for partnering with the Lagos State Government by being the title sponsor of the competition.
“I am very glad and grateful to Indomie for coming onboard as a major sponsor of this edition of the competition. This contest would encourage other children to emulate the winners of today’s competition by reading and taking their studies seriously. I would also like to use this medium to implore other corporate organisations to partner with the government so as to ensure that there is a continuous boost in the educational sector in Nigeria.”
Adebisi Sarah Sosan, former deputy governor, Lagos State in her remark, said it is an indication that public school students are not doing badly.
On his part, Tope Ashiwaju, public relation officer, Dufil Prima Food plc, stated: “Indomie is very proud of what Lagos State is doing in education. It is just the beginning of our partnership with Lagos State.”
Ashiwaju disclosed that with the performance of the students, Indomie will take Spelling Bee to national and international levels assuring that funding of the project will never be an issue, adding that the three best winners of the competition will become Indomie ambassadors.
Boadley Juwon Afolarin who emerged first said in order for him to excel, most of the night, he woke up to study. According to him, he started preparing four months ago.
Afolarin who will like to be a physicist because of his love for mechanical subjects appealed to the Lagos state government to build a new laboratory and provide more books for his school library.
Subsequently, Afolarin was presented with N250,000 while the second and third winner went home with N150,000 and N100,000 respectively.
