20 students from various schools in Kwara State, have qualified for the finals of the poetry competition organized by an Ilorin-based charity organization, MMGIVIT.
The successful students were among the 40 participants, drawn from various secondary schools across Kwara State, that participated at the “2023 Pre-finals Poetry Competition” of the Charity Initiative.
The 20 students will slug it out at the finals of the competition holding in January, 2023.
10 participants won in each of the Junior secondary school and Senior secondary school categories.
The participants made presentation on the topic “Charity as an antidote to Financial Crime and Drug Abuse”.
However, Okotie Vanessa Mary of St. Joseph Secondary School emerged winner in the senior category with 74% mark while Afowowe Gideon of His Grace and Anjola Afolayan St. Joseph came second and third with 71% and 62 % respectively.
The 4th position went to Kolawole Mercy of St. Joseph with 61% mark, Yemi-Eweka Simibowale of Ivy-Hill took 5th position with 59.5%, Abdullateef Hawau Abidemi of Unilorin Secondary school making the 6th position with 59% , Ojuolape A. Rofiat of Sheikh Abdulsalam College took 7th position 58% mark, Adebisi Oyindamola of Olumawu Secondary schools went home with 8th position with 57% mark while the 9th and 10th positions went toTasie Judith of Unilorin with 56.5% and Sofiyat Abubakar Mojirola of GGDSS Oko-Erin with 56% respectively.
In the Junior category, Alaya Amira of His Grace Secondary School topped the table with 71%, Jimoh O. Semilore of St. Joseph Secondary School came second with 69% ,while the 3rd and 4th positions went to Suleiman O. Khadijat of
Unilorin Junior Secondary school with 66% , and Dapo Oluwagbemisola of St. Joseph with 65%
The 5th position went Bakare Abdulqudir O. of GSS, Ilorin with 64%, Umeohanna Goodluck David of St. Joseph with 63% took 6th position, the 7th position went to Abdulgafar Abdulrahman of Muslim Model with 62% , Saka Masturohof Muslim Model took 8th position with 60%, while the 9th and 10th positions went to Adeyemi-Salami Abdulraheem of Ar-Raheem College with 56% and Uthman Abiodun Kabirat of Mollys Secondary school with 55.5% respectively.
In her opening remarks at the well attended competition ceremony held at African Peoples Hall, Onikanga Street GRA, Ilorin on Wednesday (November 9, 2022), the MMGIVIT Coordinator-General, Dr. Saeedat B. Aliyu, said the Pre-finals competition was designed to select 10 participants each from Senior and Junior categories who will compete at the final stage sometime in January 2023.
She congratulated all the participants for their brilliant performance, saying that there is no loser but everybody is a winner.
Aliyu explained that the spirit behind the competition was to reawaken the reading culture among students and more importantly to promote charity using poetry as a platform.
She disclosed that winners in the final categories will go home with various prizes, pointing out that poetry competition is usually part of MMGIVIT annual programmes as well as wealth redistribution to the less privileged in the society.
The event was graced by some eminent members of MMGIVIT and teachers from participating schools across the state.
