Alawogbe celebrates Easter with football …as Jeunesse d’ave Alawogbe marks five years

The people of Ave-Alawogbe, a small community in Togo – near Ave-Havi in the Volta Region of Ghana, have celebrated this year’s Easter festivity with a series of en­chanting events including football games involving both males and females.

The occasion also marked the fifth anniversary celebrations of the Ave-Alawogbe Youth, also known as Jeunesse d’ave Alawog­be, headed by Mr Augustine Kofi Dogba.

Watched by a decent crowd from far and near, the two matches produced captivating scenes on the pitch as the players exhibited polished football, capping it with spectacular goals.

Both players were drawn from the Alawogbe community in the outskirts of Togo, as well as from Ghana. Aside from the CFA franc, Alawogbe accepts the Ghanaian cedi too as its medium of ex­change.

In the women’s game, the Alawogbe ladies captained by Augustina Atsuphui Morvey, beat their Ghanaian-based counterparts 5-4 on penalties – after a pulsat­ing barren draw. It was a second successive defeat for the Ghana team, who had sworn to avenge last year’s defeat at the hands of their hosts.

The men’s match also travelled into the lottery of penalty shoot-out after the two teams sold out a blistering 1-1 scoreline in a game described by many as Togo v Ghana.

After just seven minutes, the Alawogbe home-based players stole a stunning lead through Alphonse Adzakpa to the excite­ment of the crowd. However, the visitors fought relentlessly for the equaliser, but were strongly held back by their opponents whose rear-guard was pivoted around ‘no-nonsense’ Benois Awaga and man-of-the-match, Noah Nyonyo.

In the second half, however, the visitors produced a much-better performance, and could have come on level terms quite early in the game, but Eyram Morvey squan­dered the opportunity.

After missing a couple of chanc­es, Nicholas Nodzo pulled level for the visitors who proceeded to win 3-2 on penalties. However, just about five minutes before the final whistle, Nyonyo blew off a controversial spot-kick awarded the home team. It could have been the winner.

It is the second consecutive win for the visitors who defeated their hosts 2-1 last year for the Unity and Peace Cup.

A number of development issues were discussed at a durbar of chiefs, elders and citizens of Alawogbe, a day ahead of the games. They included construc­tion of ultra-modern public toilet facilities, school project, a palm tree planting programme and bereavement support through a mandatory monthly contribution, among others.

Chairman of the occasion, Mr David Morgan, advised the youth and citizenry of Alawogbe to re­main focused and contribute their widow’s mite to make the commu­nity a better place.

Prominent men of God – including Rev. Godfred Hodor, Catechist Edward Afortude, Pastor Seth Yao Sovor, Evangelist Em­manuel Ameteku, Prophet Sinabe Aziage, Elder Anane Adzogbor and Elder Lucas Galey, took turns to pray for the community. Preach­ing the sermon, Catechist Afortude urged the youth to forgive each other, avoid drunkenness and turn over a new leaf.

The Jeunesse d’Ave Alawogbe leader also urged the youth to remain united and work their tails off to develop the community. Certificates of honour from the youth group were given to deserv­ing citizens of the community.

Trophies donated by an elder of Alawogbe, Dumega Victor Mor­vey, were also presented to winners of the football games, while a FIFA-branded football donated by Mr Francis Vigah was also present­ed to the Alawogbe football team.

 BY JOHN VIGAH