Photo caption: Spellers representing different schools at the 2024 Prime Apex Spelling Bee competition
King George Memorial School has won the 2024 Prime Apex Spelling Bee competition for schools in Badagry division of Lagos State, which was successfully held on July 6.
King George Memorial School spellers emerged the overall winners of the competition in both secondary and primary cadres.
Ascension Schools, in Imeke, Badagry, emerged first runner up in both categories while Luck Davies School came third.
According to a statement signed by the organisers and made available to journalists informed that the competition that will leave different memories in the minds of the over 400 students, teachers and principals that were present in the King George Memorial School owned Events Hall.
Present at the venue of the keenly contested competition were representatives of the First Bank Nigeria PLC, led by the Marketing Associate, Mrs. Grace Odunjo, who also made presentation of First runner up plaque award.
First Bank, the organisers said has actively been the pillar behind successful execution of the spelling bee since inception, supporting it with monetary grants and customised merchandise.
According to the bank’s officials, the institution’s interest and involvement is to express its commitment to the educational development of Nigerian youths because they are the potential leaders of the country.
Other companies that supported the Spelling Bee project include: Friesland Campina WAMCO Nigeria PLC, manufacturer of peak milk brands, and Tasty Time Nigeria Limited, a beverage bottling company.
However, on the trail of the competition, is a bag of mixed reactions; while some of the participants found it an interesting bee competition, others who lost out as well as schools that could not grab the trophies for overall winners or even make the second and third places, expressed disappointment at the way it went, accusing the judges of going out of the rules line.
For instance, Meritland Group of Schools felt all her spellers were inconsiderably knocked out at the early rounds of the competition.
Meritland might have been disappointed because as the overall winner in all the categories in the previous competition with cash, trophy and plaque awards came to King George Hall with strong determination to repeat the feat but totally lost out.
The Principal of the school Mr. Kukoyi, who led the students to the Spelling Bee was bitter, and expressed disappointment but assured that his school would accept the result and will not boycott future events.
“We are very disappointed because we really worked for this outing, and we are sure if the judges had played their roles with fairness, we would have made an impact,” he said.
Ironically, some of the students of the schools that made the day including King George, the overall winner also complained.
Responding to the various issues raised, Editor-in-Chief of Prime Apex News Magazine, Ola Jones, the company organising the annual competition, promised that the issues would be looked into particularly to guide against reoccurrence in the future.
He appealed to the aggrieved, to take their fates with good spirit of sportsmanship, adding that there is nothing handled by man that is perfect, only that handled by God.
Similarly, the Coordinator of the Bee competition, Angela Daodu, also appealed to those who expressed disappointment to allow frayed nerves to be calmed.
She however, expressed profound gratitude to all the companies that made the event a reality.
Daodu further thanked the participants for comportment, the peace and tranquility they maintained throughout the period of the competition by playing by the rules and guidelines, even though they had their reservations.
“It is not impossible to have a situation like this; even in global and national competitions, we do have them,” she pointed out.
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