Mrs Olaide Graham, the Chief Executive Officer, Gbolad Continental Venture and organisers of the maiden edition of the Ludo National Championships said the event will hold in the commercial city of Lagos from July 18 to July 23.
She stated this during a news conference on Wednesday in Lagos.
Ludo is a strategy board game for two to four players, in which the players race their four tokens from start to finish according to the rolls of a single die.
Like other cross and circle games, Ludo is derived from the Indian game Pachisi.
According to Graham, the event, set to hold at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, will have two different categories of participants.
She said that the participants were expected to compete at the tertiary institutions in Lagos and in other parts of the South West region of the country.
The other category would have people come by from all spheres of life, which cut across genders and ages 16-90, provided they have hands and can see.
“We are delighted to organise this historic event which is first of its kind in Lagos and is expected to grow nationwide.
“The game of Ludo is not new, but it is yet to be transformed to be an event that would bring together for the purpose of recreation and national cohesion.
“Our ultimate purpose is to bring the game to limelight, reduce stress, tension, and improve reasoning, increase creativity, focus and strategy.
“We also intend to reward players accordingly as we project a wide acceptance of the game,” she said.
The Ludo National Championship is being supported by the Lagos State Sports Commission and the Redeemers University, Ede.
In the same vein, Coach Calistus Ibe of Enugu Angels FC of Agbani Road said that his team is back to Enugu State Football League to win and expose their new players to the world.
Ibe stated this, after his club played 1-1 draw with Oji River United FC at the ongoing state league, on Wednesday.
He said that his team had qualified for the quarter finals despite having an outstanding match to play in the group against Nsukka United.
“We played well against Oji Rivers United but we did not win. Since we cannot lose up to 3-0 to Nsukka United, we are sure we will scale through.
“Our target for this year’s state football league is to win and make up for the two years we have been building a new team.
“The players have matured and now is the time to win the league and bring back that memory, where every team used to be afraid of facing Enugu Angels,” he said.
Meanwhile, Oji Rivers Coach, Ikechukwu Ani, who also spoke with NAN, said that his team was not lucky in the ongoing football league and so, had to take their ouster in good faith.
“I am disappointed that we could not win Enugu Angels, as it was one of the matches we prepared to win, and five points cannot qualify us from the group.
“We have five teams ahead of us in terms of points. So we are going home to prepare the players for future challenges, with the hope of coming back stronger for the next edition.
Oji River and Enugu Angels are in group A, alongside Nsukka United FC, FC Inter and Miserere FC.
