Gov’t Sponsors Peace Games at SKD

Following an intercessory service held on Sunday at the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Monrovia to commemorate ten years of uninterrupted peace in Liberia, the Ministry of Youth and Sports held one-day sporting activities, bringing together government officials and the media here.

In a chart with this paper recently, Mr. Patrick Mulbah, Supervisor of the Public Information office at the Executive Protective Service (EPS) said at the start of the match, Liberia’s Chief Patron of Sports President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf traditionally footed the ball to kick start the games.

He said football and kickball were played at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex (SKD) in Paynesville, outside Monrovia. In the first match held between the Liberia’s security apparatus and the media, both sides showed their might on the field of play, concluding with 1-1 draw.

The government sports squad battling the media on Sunday at the SKD Sports Complex included Captain Othello Warrick,  Director of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s elite Executive Protection Service (EPS); Mr. Chris C. Massaquoi, Director of the Liberia National Police (LNP) and representatives of the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (BIN), among others.

Mulbah said in a subsequent match, members of the Legislature battled with government appointees from the Executive Branch of Government with the lawmakers securing a 3-1 victory against the Executive. Representing the government appointees against the Legislature were Liberia’s Foreign Minister Augustine K. Ngafuan, Youth and Sports Minister, Lenn Eugene Nagbe, among others.

From the Legislature, Representatives Henry Fahnbullah, Garrison Yealue and Eugene Fallah Kparkar, among others, proved their soccer prowess. Sports have often been used here as a common unifier among Liberians, especially during the observance of critical national events. Liberia has celebrated a decade of peace, thanking God and contributors for the silence of gun and civil unrest since a peace agreement was signed 18 August 2003 in Accra, Ghana.