By Solomon Nwoke
SUPER Arrows Handball team of Nigeria is set to defend its title in the forthcoming 2nd Commonwealth ECOWAS Handball Championship which throws off from April 4- 8, 2012 in Abuja.

Already, the Handball Federation  of Nigeria (HFN) has started camping of the nation’s 20 best handball players. in Minna in preparation for their title defense.

Among the players in camp include: Abdulrask Audu (Police), Samuel  Samora (Army),Aliyu Aminu (Niger Utd), Sunday Samuel (Niger Utd), Andrew Daniel (Plateau Vipers), Amadi Emmanuel (Plateau Vipers), Abass Adejuma (Plateau Vipers), Abdulmajeed Mudashiru (Civil Defence),Chris Ogedengbe (Kano Pyramids) and Emmanuel Ogbare (Kano Pyramids).

The rest are; Jamilu Adamu (Kano Pyramids), Jacob Kutau (Kano Pyramids), Shehu Aliyu (Niger Utd), Akande Tope (FRSC), Bala Mohammed (FRSC), Saka Salau (FRSC), Ogbonna Promise (FRSC), Emeka Adigwe (Lagos), Osawonyi Olaye (Delta) and Ademolugbe Ola (Lagos).

With Nigeria having two pairs of  its  Confederation of African Handball (CAHB) badged referees,  Bosede Momoh/ Ngozi Eze and Tobi Peter/ Solomon Anthony and a of pair International Handball Federeation (IHF) badged referees Sikiru Ahmed/ Ahmadu James to officiate in the championship, the President of HFN, Alhaji Yusuf Dauda expressed confidence that they would surely defend their title.

He said, the invitation of the badged referees  was a true vindication of the hardwork and developmental projects the federation has been embarking on since they came on board.

“Right now, we have embarked on a two week training camp to get our players fit for the championship. As you know, Nigeria won the last edition of this championship and I strongly believe that with the effort we are making we are going to do Nigeria proud once again” , Alhaji Dauda said.

He recalled that Nigeria had so well in the game of handball even in the officiating about two decades ago when the likes of Major Yakubu Uduamokhai led the league of Nigeria referees that officiated in the IHF World Championship.
He said, “I believe that we have been trying our best to help revitalize the game of handball in Nigeria. After the two CAHB badged referees must have participated in this championship, we will start the process of helping them to upgrade to IHF”.