By John Egbokhan
The All Nigeria Peoples Party’s Solomon Edevbiri has promised to return the state to the vanguard of sports in the country if he wins Saturday’s gubernatorial elections in Edo State.

Edevbiri, who is bidding to unseat incumbent Governor, Adams Oshiomhole from office in November told Sports Vanguard of his plans to make sports the biggest industry that would earn the State mega money in the nearest future.

Having sponsored Bendel United for four years between 2002 and 2005 and other sports competitions in Edo State, Edevdiri, said he was counting on the electorate to vote for a candidate who has a proven track record in sports development.

“”I have been actively involved in sports development. My company has sponsored the Edo State super league. I am doing this because of my passion to support the people, passion to support youths and stop their restiveness. The only what to do that is to engage them constantly and I see sports as a means to achieve this aim. The people know my record when it comes to supporting their development.

“The first thing we would do is to build a new stadium with a minimum capacity of 45, 000 because the present, with about 20, 000, is not good enough for the State. Then, we are going to build mini-stadium in every local government headquarter. We want to stimulate sports at the local government level and once we are able to do that, we would be in a position to encourage sports and develop young and talented people who will represent Edo State and bring the glory back. The present Ogbe Stadium will be unit for our schools to use for their games

“We are going to refurbish the Afuze sports camp and make it functional again for the use of our athletes. All these plans are all laid down We want to bring back the Principal’s Cup in January 2013, two months after my inauguration. We are going to encourage inter-collegiate sports competition. We are going to group about 10 sports together and from there, our catch-them young programme will manifest,” Edebiri added.