By Omowumi Omotosho
The Fabulous Sparkling Sparks Football Club of Ilorin yesterday disbursed about #1 million to the widows and children of their team mates that have died.
The event which was held under the auspices of Sparks Foundation at Adewole Estate, witnessed 18 families whose husbands were no more. Speaking at the event, the Chairman of the team Malam Baba Alausa-Ahmed said the members decided to give the support to the families “to show the bond that we enjoyed among ourselves”
“We were a closely knit family and we shared fantastic memories within ourselves. We traveled far and wide to different parts of Nigeria like Enugu, Lagos, Makurdi, Kainji, Offa among others”. He also recalled that the team won many championships such as the Kwara State YSFON Ramat Cup three times, and came third at the National Ramat finals in Enugu in 1980. We also won the coveted State Taiwo Cup in 1983, during the era of Governor C. O. Adebayo. We also supplied Stars to the Nigerian football family”. Furthermore, he expressed gratitude to the donors and called on others to follow suit. According to him, there are many programmes that have been lined up in the Foundation and “it can only be attained by our financial, moral and logistic support”. He also thanked our Team Manager Alhaji Moroof Shittu, Coaches Rasheed Badmus Baiye, Agboola Ismail, Adeniji and other officials for their contribution to tutoring our team to stardom.
Members of Sparks present at the event
In his remark, Alhaji Funsho Issa expressed gratitude to God for keeping the families going. He specially thanked the widows for the great job that have been accomplished to keep the families together. He urged them to reach out to our team whenever they needed interventions like admission for “our children”, marriage ceremonies or any other event that needed our support and or presence. Alhaji Tosho Ahmed who gave the vote of thanks on behalf of the team lavishly appreciated the donors that selflessly contributed money to make the event possible. He equally thanked the members that took out time to physically attend.
Joint picture of the beneficiaries and members of Sparks
The 18 beneficiaries were the families of Abdulahi Nababa, Lanre Durosinlorun, Lawyer Dare Akanbi, Amuda Oganija.
Oga Mumini, Woli Amari Oloje, Ibrahim Ajetunmobi, Issa Olororo, Toyin Kampala, Tunde Elebo Circular Tetteh , Sulu Sule, Kadir Salau, Adam Mustapha Onagun, Bamidele Aturu, Abdulraheem Ajao Morocco, Raimi Yakub, Alfa Ya Zakariyah and Ustaz Abdulsalam Oba Alikinla.
While responding on behalf of the beneficiaries Malam Mashood Nababa and Alhaja Zainab Ajetunmobi expressed appreciation for the kind gesture. They said it was a pleasant surprise which showed the love and affection that existed between the members of Sparks. “It demonstrated that being out of sight was not out of the mind”. They supplicated Allah to continue to strengthen the team and bless everyone. They also promised to use the money judiciously.
Ustaz Saidu Alaya, who offered both the opening and closing prayers supplicated to Almighty God to always lead the families of the departed, and all of us onto the right path. He prayed Allah to bless the donors and give the others the requisite blessing to give their support to the Foundation, going forward.
