By Ken Stanley

Miss Somtochukwu Benedicta Agujiobi of Roseville Secondary School, Enugu, has emerged national overall winner of the Secondary Schools’ Poetry category of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Literary Competitions.

Agujiobi emerged winner of the competition with the theme: “The Nigerian Army: Securing the People and Promoting Development.”

Presenting the awards of the COAS to winners from South-East at the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Enugu, on Friday, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 82 Division, Maj.-Gen. Oluyemi Olatoye, commended Agujiobi and others for their brilliance.

According to Olatoye, the Literary Competition, which has three categories, is one of the Civil-Military-Cooperation programmes in which the COAS, Lt.-Gen. Olufemi Oluyede, promotes education and hard work among students.

The GOC, who was represented by the Chief of Staff to the GOC, Brig.-Gen. Usman Abubakar, charged students to engage themselves with positive thinking and actions.

He called on them to be focused on their studies to make themselves, families, state and nation proud.

“On behalf of the COAS, I am commending the winner and runners-up of the three categories of the competition within the Division Area of Responsibility (AoR).

“The feat achieved shows that the students as well as their teachers/lecturers are doing a good job.

“This also goes a long way to show that we have potential and future human resource within the country.

“You should not stop here, you must exploit further by being obedient and focused on your studies,” the GOC said.

Responding, Agujiobi, who spoke on behalf of other runners-up and award recipients, thanked God and the COAS for the opportunity to explore educationally.

“We will continue to keep the flag flying and continue to do the state and country proud,” she added.

The highpoint of the event included a cheque of N600,000 presented by the COAS to Agujiobi and monetary cash to other runners-up.

The three categories of the second edition of the competition included: Essay Competition, Art Competition and Poetry Competition.

The categories were competed by thousands of pupils/students within the country at different levels of primary school, secondary school and tertiary institution.