itel, others promote peace through sports

A mobile phone brand, itel, has partnered with Airtel, FrontRow Sports and Entertainment Limited, and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to foster peace and unity among Nigerians using sports.

Recognising sports, especially football, as a great unifier of people across the world, itel aligned with other partners to bring sports to their doorsteps while also pushing its latest P-series smartphone, the itel P40.

The sporting event tagged itel’s Play For Power was held on Tuesday at the Campos Memorial Mini Stadium in Lagos Island area of Lagos State.

Speaking at the event, itel’s Marketing Manager for West Africa, Oke Umurhohwo, said, “We are using the itel Play For Power activity as an event to promote peace and unity among Nigerians.

“While it is also a celebratory event for the newly launched itel P40, a powerful smartphone that lasts 3 days with one charge, we want everyone to know that we are an organisation which believes in giving back to society as much as we can, when we can.

“This is a dual event- it is a partnership with FrontRow Sports and the UNHCR Office to play for peace and it is also a partnership with Airtel to play for power. Everyone present at the event has shown us truly that peaceful coexistence is possible through the power of sports.”

On his part, Head of Strategy at FrontRow Sports, Adedamola Garuba, also said, “As part of the organizers for the Play for Power event with itel and Airtel, we wanted to find a way to use football to advocate for peace and power. People need to see that in peace there is also power. This made it a perfect partnership with itel who coincidentally have launched the itel P40, a very strong and reliable smartphone at the same time.”

The event featured power challenges, press-up challenges, races between the teachers of the secondary schools present at the event, and mini-engagement games for the students as well to test their power and durability.

There was also a football competition between four football teams. The football teams included the combined itel-Airtel team, Right FC, NMA Football Club, and the UNHCR Refugee Team.

Those present at the event include Veeki Chen, Country Manager for itel; Oluwafemi Oshinlaja, Acting Chief Commercial Officer for Airtel; Oladapo Ajayi, Chief Officer at Plug Sports; Abisoye Adebayo, CEO of BOMART Integrated Services and COO Gasland Nigeria Limited; Lanre Vigo, Chief Executive at Plug Sports, and many more were present at the event to support and cheer on the initiative which many lauded as the sports event of the year.