GSS Apo, GSS zone 3 crowned Power forward champion

Bullet Energy Drink Basketball Championship

GSS Apo ‘Apo Raptors’ emerged winners in the boys category of this year’s Power Forward event concluded at the MKO Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.
GSS Zone 3 ‘Wuse Fever’ were crowned champions in the girls category.

On the final day of the basketball tournament, which ran from June through September, GSS Apo defeated GSS Zone 3 in the boys’ division, and GSS Zone 3 beat Total Child Model School in the girls’ division to claim their respective titles.

This season featured 30 teams in the boys’ category and 12 for the girls. The top eight girls’ teams and top 10 boys’ teams advanced to the playoffs, and the top two girls’ and boys’ playoff teams got to the final of the Power Forward.

As part of the finals, the participants took part in a Malaria Jeopardy Game, and had the opportunity to utilise malaria testing stations set up outside the stadium.

The three-day 10th-anniversary celebrations of the Power Forward programme, is a youth development programme, established in 2013, to provide life skills and public health awareness, malaria prevention workshops and basketball development programming to more than 250,000 boys and girls across 40 schools in Abuja.

The tournament also featured a Jr. NBA clinic for 1,200 children ages 16 and under, and an alumni summit in the presence of 2015 NBA champion, Festus Ezeli and 2015 AfroBasket champion, Olumide Oyedeji.

“Over the past decade, our partnership with NBA Africa and PanAfricare on the Power Forward initiative has promoted youth development through sports, life skills, and public health education,” ExxonMobil Foundation President, Alvin Abraham said.

“This impactful programme has benefitted more than 250,000 young Nigerians and