By Dorcas Essien
Saidu Ayorinde Adebanjo of Nigeria on Sunday emerged the 13th African Scrabble Champion winning 23 games of 32 in Tema, Ghana.
Ayorinde, dethroned his Nigeria counterpart, Nsikakabasi Etim, the immediate past Africa Scrabble Champion, when he finished first in a 32-game marathon to become the best in the duel.
Ayorinde was ranked sixteenth at the 2015 World Scrabble championship.
Some Nigerians, namely: Eta Karo, Umebiye Cyril, Nsikakabasi Etim and Rex Ogbakpa emerged in the second, third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.
A Kenyan, Gitonga Nberitou, broke Nigerian line up to take the sixth position.
Other Nigerians in the listing are: Ogbogu Azubuike, seventh; Dennis Ikekeregor, eight; and Anthony Ikolothe, the National Scrabble Coach of the Senior Team, ninth, John Curtis Ebomah came tenth.
Nigeria won nine of the ten positions in the championship and consolidated its position as the best team of the championship since nine of its representatives finished in top positions.
Ikolo told our correspondent that the victory was due to hard work and dedication.
“It is a testimony to the potential of Nigeria as a country and the sacrifice and hard work of the players,” he said.
Ayorinde who lives in Ikorodu, in Lagos state, is an hydrologist cum geo-informatics system analyst.
He attended Model College, Igbokuta and University of Agriculture in Abeokuta. He later obtained a masters degree in geo- informatic system from University of Lagos.
NAN
