WORLD WRESTLING CHAMPION PLANS DIALOGUE WITH CRIMINALS
Current world heavy weight wrestling champion, Mr Osita Offor, popularly known as 'the Ultimate Commander,' has predicted that crime level in the South-east zone if not checked now would in future become uncontrollable.
Offor, who made this prediction in Enugu at Peace Mass Transit Limited headquarters, where he was unveiled as the Ambassador of the leading transport company in the country, promised to help check the rise of crime rate in the zone .
According to him, he would achieve this by using sports as a tool to seek an end to kidnapping, armed robbery, murder and other vices in the region.
He said his campaign against anti-criminal activities in the South-east would be anchored on the platform of Peace Mass Transit, hoping that the company would convey him to hideouts of suspected criminals, where he would dialogue with them.
The wrestler reasoned that since the Igbo youths were the ones mostly involved in crime, he would change their views about life by making them realise that they could earn money by engaging in sporting activities.
'The youths need to realise the importance of sports to national development and the role it plays in income generation. This is what I intend to make them understand, instead of them taking to crime.
'Had I not engaged in sports soon after I graduated from the university, I probably would have taken to crime and this would only have taken my state, Abia, and Nigeria backward.
'I was at home for some months without job. When I started with wrestling, I was initially frustrated. Later, I joined boxing, but the likes of David Izonrite and some other good boxers in the country then were not comfortable with my style then.
'I was told by several coaches in the country that if I continued to hit people with my style that I could kill someone. I was then advised to quit. But instead of being idle or taking to crime, I went back to boxing where the likes of the late Power Mike encouraged me and today I am at the top of my game.'
He, therefore, said aside sports, the youths in the South-east zone could earn a living by venturing into transport business, pointing out that 'the Managing Director of Peace Mass Transit, Dr. Sam Onyishi, ventured into the transport business in 1982 as a conductor, then later as a driver and a spare parts dealer at some point and today, he owns about the biggest transport company.'
He said if there was no transportation, there would not have been education in the zone as most parents in Igbo land sent their children to school or cater for them through the money they made from one form of transport business or the other.
Onyishi promised to continue to support the cause of the wrestler for a better Nigeria, saying it would ensure growth and development.
'We would not only engage in or support positive transformation programmes, but we would continue to involve more people like 'the Ultimate Commander' in our programmes with the hope that their influence would bring changes to our society.'