Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra says he is personally interested in sports and will do all that is possible to improve the sector in the state.

Mr Soludo said this while responding to questions from newsmen in Awka on the occasion of the 100 days of his administration on Saturday.

He said sports was a robust part of his manifesto but regretted that the prevailing security situation in the state had not made it possible for his government to implement some of them.

The governor described Anambra as home for sports with the majority of people who developed sports in Nigeria from the state, adding that his administration was willing to reignite the tradition.

“To be honest with you, we are very passionate about sports; if you look at our manifesto, we spoke very eloquently to it. We believe in the sports economy, it is an area that we need to exploit and explore.

“We had planned to kick start sporting activities the next day after our inauguration but for insecurity, that was not possible, as a matter of fact, I have my bicycle and I would have loved to use it to go to work but I have been advised to shelve that for some time,” he said.

Mr Soludo promised to establish a state-owned football club and develop sports from the grassroots with the revival of moribund school sports competitions in the state.

According to him, “I am very passionate about sports, I played football and got a scar from it. You preempted us on giving the state a football team; give us some time, we have just spent 100 days, a lot will still happen.

“We will not only have a football team, we are going to revive sports from the roots, inter school competition for primary school, inter house sports for secondary schools, inter community championships and academies to complement private sector efforts,” he said.

Some members of the sports community in Anambra had accused the current administration of not paying attention to sports since inception on March 17.

(NAN)