•Late James Minna Okpeki
LAGOS (Sundiata Post) – A former features and opinion page editor of Vanguard newspaper, Mrs Judith Ufford and her siblings will on 14 December 2023 launch a foundation, James Minna Okpeki Foundation Football Cup (JMOFFC) to immotalise their father, James Minna Okpeki.
The late Okpeki, who died in 2013, was born in 1935 and the launch of the foundation is one of the activities lined up to commemorate his 88th posthumous birthday, according to a statement made available to Sundiata Post by Mrs Ufford.
The statement said Okpeki, who was a chartered accountant, loved music and football.
The statement said further “James Minna Okpeki (1935 -2013) had many loves, two of the foremost being people and football. In that respect the James Minna Okpeki Foundation Football Cup (JMOFFC) will be inaugurated on that day to celebrate two of his passions while he lived.
“The foundation has launched an online competition on its Facebook and Instagram pages running through November till 6th December for a slogan for the new foundation.
“Ten winners from the competition are expected to share from the N500,000 prize money that has been provided. The winners will be announced on 14th December via its social media handles on Instagram _jmoffc and on Facebook, James Minna Okpeki FFC.”
Speaking ahead of the launch, Mrs Ufford, who is Okpeki’s first daughter and member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation, said: “This is a remarkably apt way to remember my father. He was renowned for his generosity, to family, friends and strangers alike. A foundation in his memory that invests in the potential of young people through grassroot football brings together so much that was important and joyful to him.”
Another daughter, Mrs Linda Obiamiwe (nee Okpeki) also spoke in the same direction.
