President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF), Hon. Daniel Igali, has emerged as the South-South representative on the board of the federation.
Igali, who is also a world and Olympic wrestling champion, secured the position during the South-South zonal election held on Saturday in Benin City, Edo State capital, the zonal headquarters.
The NWF president will be joined on the new board by the current 1st Vice President, Chris Ankpila, who emerged as the North Central representative. Nigeria’s women’s national team coach, Purity Akuh, won the South West seat, while Alhaji Habib Abubakar Umar claimed the North West slot. Coach Clement Ejim was elected for the South East, and Alhaji Mustapha Bura emerged as the North East representative.
In his reaction after the elections in Benin City, Igali described the peaceful and transparent process as heartwarming, commending stakeholders for their conduct.
“First, I want to say that for Nigerian sports to actively compete with the supposed big nations, assembling competent people in the various federations’ boards is a good asset to that cause,” Igali said.
He congratulated the newly elected zonal representatives and urged them to consolidate on the board’s vision of building a progressive and enviable wrestling federation in Nigeria.
“For me, there are no winners in this case. The peaceful nature of these zonal elections shows the kind of federation we want to run. I urge everyone to join hands with their zonal reps to organise developmental wrestling programmes in their zones because grassroots is the bedrock of our sport’s growth,” he added.
It will be recalled that earlier, Tokyo 2021 Olympic silver medalist Blessing Oborodudu emerged as the Athletes’ Representative, while Burutu Happiness was elected as the Technical Representative on the NWF board.
