14-year-old Ike-Okoro wins PZ Cussons Carex Chemistry Challenge

With a total of 88.8 per cent in both theory and practical sessions of the 2015 PZ Cussons Carex Chemistry Challenge (PZCCC), 14-year-old Anthony Ekene Ike-Okoro emerged the overall champion of the contest.

Ike-Okoro, an Senior Secondary Three student of Top Grade Secondary School, Surulere, Lagos, is the youngest winner of the competition, which made its debut in 2013.

His elder brother Victor Ike-Okoro, The Guardian learnt was the third runner-up at the inaugural edition of the competition.

Seventeen-year-old Wajul Kareem of Abibat Mogaji Millennium Senior Secondary School, Agege, finished as the first runner up with 75.4 per cent, while Samuel Joseph, a 15-year-old student of the same school came third.

For his feat, Ike-Okoro won a cash prize of N700, 000, a laptop and gold medal, and his Chemistry teacher, Mr John Odinibe Nnani, went home with N100, 000; while the school won a trophy and chemistry textbooks worth N100, 000.

Kareem, received a cash prize of N500, 000, a laptop and silver medal, while Joseph got N400, 000, a laptop and bronze medal.

Their school got chemistry textbooks worth a cumulative of N150,000; while their Chemistry teacher, Mr Odusanya Tolulope Joseph, got double rewards for producing both the first and second runners-up (N80,000 for the first runner-up and N70, 000 for the second runner-up).

Speaking at the grand finale of the competition, Group Corporate Affairs and Administration Director of the firm, Mrs Yomi Ifaturoti, said the competition was aimed at promoting excellence amongst secondary school students.

She said the experience in the last three years has proved that public schools still have good quality, despite the contrary being the perception, as the 2015 edition produced two students of public schools amongst the four finalists.

Chairman Advisory Board of PZCCC, Prof Oladele Osibanjo, while congratulating the organisers for conceiving the project, said the initiative would popularise the study of chemistry as an important science subject.