A sports development outfit, Prudential Sports Limited, which also focuses on talent empowerment and athletes’ support, has recognised and honoured some of Nigeria’s outstanding sports administrators and most promising athletes in Gombe State.

Those honoured in different categories at the awards ceremony, which held at the event hall of Matrix International Academy, Gombe, were Mercy Iliya Namarwa-Overall, as the Best Athlete of the Year (Gombe State Chess Association); Abdulrahman Mahmoud Baba, Young Athlete of the Season (Doma United); Chindo Abubakar, Most Improved Player (Gombe Bulls Basketball Club) and Atiku Baitu of FC Yarmalight, who was recognised as Player with the Most Appearances.

Others were Bawa Buhari, Referee of the Year, Williams Attah, Sports Journalist of the Year (Daily Independence); All Stars FC Gombe, winners of Senator Haruna Garba’s Fair Play Award and the CEO of Mailantarki Academy, Khamisu Ahmed Mailantarki, who won the Alhaji Baba Manu’s Sports Administrator of the Year award.

Apart from the individual awards, Prudential Sports Limited used the occasion to enrol over 1,000 Gombe retired athletes and their dependents in the Gombe State Contributory Healthcare (GoHealth) scheme at a cost of N10 million.

Speaking at the event, the CEO of Prudential Sports and pioneer Chairman of Gombe Sports Commission, Farouk Yarma, said that 100 active athletes have also been enrolled into a contributory pension scheme with Premium Pension Limited.

The company donated N2 million to Gombe State Football Association for the registration of clubs in the state divisions 1 and 2 of the state’s league, and also donated sports equipment to 15 selected public and private schools in Gombe State. The materials included footballs, basketballs, volleyballs, handballs, chessboards, scrambled boards, and football nets.

“We also supported Gombe State University with similar sports equipment and two sets of customized football jerseys to promote sports development in the university.

“In all, it cost over N65m to host the award and purchase those equipment to support sports development in Gombe State,” said Yarma. At the ceremony, a former governor of Gombe State and the newly elected President of Nigeria Chess Federation, Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo, presented the 2025 Prudential Sports Award for the Overall Best Athlete in Gombe State to little Mercy Iliya. He also pledged to sponsor her trip to Zimbabwe to join the Nigerian national team players for the continental chess championship.

In his remarks, the Vice-Chancellor of Gombe State University, Prof Sani Ahmed Yauta, commended the firm’s unwavering contributions to sports development and assured that the newly donated sports kits would be used to further enhance sports activities at Gombe State University (GSU).