The students of Lumen Christi International High School, Arue-Uromi, Edo State won this year’s SEPLAT Pearls Quiz competition. The annual competition is organised by SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company PLC, operators of the NPDC/SEPLAT JV assets, OML 4, 38 & 41.
The winning school, represented by Kingsley Okafor, Cletus Ifedhor and Clinton Opara emerged after a keenly contested finale on Thursday, October 5 at the Unity Hall of the Delta State Government House in Asaba, the state capital. Each one of them walks away with scholarships worth N100,000 and N7 million for their school.
This is the sixth edition of the annual SEPLAT Pearls Quiz competition which has been putting smiles on the faces of students, teachers and owners of schools in Edo and Delta states since inception.
Rejoice Imiebenomo Eromosele, Destiny Ekanioe and Mary Omo Ijogbe from Russel International Group of Schools, Benin City, Edo State came second and also won scholarships for themselves and a cash prize of N3 million for their school while the students of Delta Steel Company Technical High School, Ovwian, Aladja, represented by Uzezi Omaduvie Henry, Dorothy Ezekiel and Success Nwajei placed third going away with scholarships and N1 million for the school.
Austin Avuru, MD/CEO of SEPLAT, said the event is one of the company’s landmark programmes.
“This is the one dedicated to education and excellence. We have one dedicated to healthcare. This is designed to promote exceptional and responsible leaders. That is what this quiz competition is designed for,” he stated.
He explained that this is the sixth edition of the programme which took off in 2012 with no less than 900 schools from Edo and Delta states participating annually.
“It is still a programme we are very proud of. Through this programme we have awarded 45 scholarships, we have implemented projects in 12 schools. In the first four editions, the first prize was a Toyota Hiace bus. We changed that so that we don’t impose a vehicle on a school that doesn’t even need it.
“What we do now, the first prize we execute N7 million worth of projects in the school. Give N100, 000 to each of the participating students. Second prize we execute N3 million worth of projects in the school and N75,000 to each of the students. For the third prize we execute N1 million worth of projects and N50, 000 for each of the students. There are other consolation prizes of N10,000 each that is given out to 105 schools since inception,” he said.
Chiedu Ebie, Commission for Basic and Secondary Education, Delta State, who represented the state Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, said that the Delta State Government understands the importance in investing and building human capacity, particularly education.
Explaining that the state was delighted to be hosting the event this year, he said that quiz competitions are aimed at building the spirit of healthy competition among students but the Seplat Pearls Quiz Competition in Delta and Edo states aims further than that.
“It promotes unity and integration among the students of both states. It is a heartwarming story that in the past six years, SEPLAT has successfully held this competition, including awarding scholarships to secondary and tertiary school students,” he stated.
While congratulating the students during her speech, Dr. Chioma Nwachuku, GM, External Relations and Communications, said that the winning schools had given a very good account of themselves this year having emerged from among over 900 schools.
The elated students and teachers of the winning schools were full of thanks for SEPLAT for starting and sustaining the programme over the years. They were all in agreement that the initiative has been promoting academic excellence, stimulating healthy competition, encouraging learning and rewarding outstanding academic performance among schools in Edo and Delta states in collaboration with the Ministries of Education in the respective states.