Miss Fadilah Saliu-Ahmed of Zamani College, Kaduna has been announced as the winner of the 13th Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition for Secondary School Students.

She scored 75% in the first round of the competition and maintained the same grade to lead in the second round, according to the Chief Examiner Professor T.A. Ezeigbo. According to the Chief Examiner, Miss Saliu-Ahmed wrote with tact in a natural and effortless way. Her expressive ability and the application of necessary grammatically disposition, made her the first price winner for this year’s competition.

The second position went to Miss Barakat Adebayo of Roshallom International SchoolEgbeda, Lagos, while the third position went to Miss Wuraola Adeoye of Fountain Height Secondary School, Lagos. Other winners are Miss Oluchi Onyenso of Corona Secondary School, Agbara, who came fourth, Moradeyo Olaitan of Fountain Height Secondary School, Lagos, came Fifth. The Sixth and Seventh position respectively went to Nathaniel Brown of Ritman College Ikot Epkene in Akwa-Ibom State and Master Ibe Solomon of Township Comprehensive Secondary School Amaifeke in Imo State.

According to the Chief Examiners’ report on the Mike Okonkwo Annual Essay Competition for 2016, “we had a total of eight hundred and forty-six (846) entries for the 13th edition of the competition. The organizers introduced a filtering procedure and quality enhancement mechanisms, which ensured that only good and judgeable essays got to the Judges for assessment.

The competition has become immensely popular, and the formation of an alumni association is becoming an increasing possibility. This year, incidences of copying, collaboration and plagiarisms that regularly characterized the exercise in preceding years have reduced significantly” For coming top in this year’s competition, FadilahSaliu-Ahmed of Zamani College, Kaduna, in Kaduna State will get a cheque of N100,000, a Laptop, a plaque, while the school gets three sets of Computer and a printer. Barakat Adebayo of Roshallom International School, in Lagos State who came second will go home with a cheque of N75,000, a plaque and the school will get two sets of computer and a printer.

For emerging the third position in this year’s competition, Wuraola Adeoye of Fountain Height Secondary School, Lagos will go home with a cheque of N50,000, a plaque and the school gets a Computer set. The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh candidates will get a consolation price of N20,000 each.

Explaining how the winners emerged in this year’s competition, the Chief Examiner explained that, “In the first round of the competition, we adjudged seven contestants as suitable to proceed to the one-hour written test intended to confirm the integrity of their submissions. This test usually takes place in the premises of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM) Headquarters, and the contestants are able to meet face to face and have time, albeit a short one, to forge new friendships.

Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/muslims-win-mike-okonkwos-national-essay-competition/?