Teecoks competition celebrates new winners

The annual literary competition, tagged: Teecoks writing competition, has celebrated its fresh winners.
The competition, which is organised for secondary schools pupils in Lagos, held its grand finale at Summit Auditorium in Agidingbi. The event, which had over 30 schools in attendance, was chaired by Mr Niyi Karunwi.
According to the founder, Miss Towunmi Coker, the literary initiative was inspired by her interest in promoting reading and writing culture for the teenagers. This year’s edition, which is in its fourth, was divided into two categories – poetry and prose. It had 99 participating schools. This year’s judges included Abigail Anaba, Lolade Ajekigbe, Chika Jones, Doyin Jaiyesimi and Dami Ajayi, who was the event’s guest speaker.
Adebogun Oluwatosin from Ansar-Ud-Deen College, Isolo, came top in the poetry category; while Ibukunoluwa Addy of Chrisland College, Idimu, came first in prose. Ogbonna Collins from Ajegunle Senior High School was first runner-up for poetry and Oyekola Ibukunoluwa from Providence Heights Secondary School, second runner-up.
Oguntayo Favour from Maryland Comprehensive Secondary School, second and Adetayo Ayomide from Christ the King International School, Gbagada was third. The 20 candidates that came fourth to 10th place in poetry and prosealso were applauded for their efforts and went home with consolidation prizes and certificates.
Moved by the turn out, Miss Townumi said: “After winning the Association of Nigeria Authors/ National Examination Council award as a secondary school pupil in 2007, I wanted to encourage others to develop their giftand flare for writing.
Nigeria is known for producing wonderful writers and intelligent storytellers; I wanted to the standard to be maintained by the younger generations. And that was how the initiative was born.”
During event, there was the quiz session, which had the names of authors of African literatures as the focus. Many participants proved their intelligence by answering positively to the questions.
One of the judges, Madam Anaba, urged English and Literature teachers to coach pupils on the act of writing. “We noticed that many literary terms were wrongly used and many did not pay good attention nto the rules of grammar, etc.”
Despite the recession, according to the organiser, this year’s edition drew enormous support and sponsorship. They included Parresia Publishers, Mobile Oil Nigeria Plc, Yetunde Sarumi Collection, Piggybank, Roving Heights Books, among others.