Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Friday defeated the Nigerian Navy 2-0 to become the winners of the 2017 Ships & Ports Maritime Cup Competition.
Also Josephdam beat Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to win the third place match.
The matches, played at the Legacy Pitch of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos drew a record crowd and supporters of each team.
In the tension-soaked final match, Customs goal poacher, Abubakar Michael, opened score in the 15th minute of the first half while Hafiz Adediran nailed the hope of the Naval team in the 80th minute of the game when he scored the second goal.
In the third place match, Chibueze Haddy scored the first goal in the 50th minute of the first half for Josephdam while Jelil Hafiz increased the tally in the 70th minute of the match against NPA, ending the match 2-0 at full time.
This year’s competition was quite entertaining as 61 goals were scored in all. Out of the 61 goals, Customs Abubakar Michal scored 13 to become the highest goal scorer in the competition.
With this victory, Customs has won the cup for the record fifth time, having won it in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016.
Besides winning the third place match, Josephdam won the fairplay trophy for incurring the least yellow cards.
Coordinator of the Maritime Cup Competition, Mrs. Eucharia Udoaka, said this year’s competition was impressive as the players were coordinated and well behaved in the field of play.
“You notice that there were little or no injuries. You see the friendly manner in which the players approached the game and it was quite lovely,” she said.
Customs Coach Monsiru Adebayo Soetan said he was happy but was not surprised that his team won.
“When you come into a competition you play to win. I came to the academy here to learn coaching. So it was not just by chance. I have won the cup for keeps. We won it again this time. I will be disengaging from the Customs by December this year, otherwise I would still have won it for keeps the second time next year,” he said.
He commended Ships & Ports Communication Company for organizing the competition, which he says helps organisations in the maritime industry to know each other better.
The 2017 Maritime Cup Competition was supported by NPA, Tin Can Island Container Terminal (TICT), Morbod Group and African Circle.
The kick-off of the final match was performed by the Chairman of Shipowners Forum and CEO, Morbod Group, Barrister (Mrs.) Magaret Onyema-Orakwusi, who has always thrown her weight behind the competition.
Other dignitaries that graced the occasion were Charles Okaga of the NPA, who is also the Chairman Committee of Team Managers for the competition; Captain Friday Ture, Deputy Director of Sports Nigerian Navy; Capt. Joshua Oyewumi, Managing Director Dangote Ports Operations; Ayo Egbetola, Deputy General Manager, Dangote Ports Operations; Jerry Attah, Public Relations Officer, Federal Operations Unit, Zone, A, Nigeria Customs Service and Ignatius Nweke, Deputy Director, Public Relations, Nigeria Shippers Council, who represented, the Executive Secretary, Mr. Hassan Bello.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.