The 2024 Prime Apex Spelling Bee competition for schools in the Badagry division of Lagos State was successfully held on July 6, 2024, with King George Memorial School spellers emerging as the overall winners of the competition in both secondary and primary cadres.

Ascension Schools, in Imeke, Badagry, emerged first runner-up in both categories while Luck Davies School came third. It was a competition that would leave different memories in the minds of the over 400 students, teachers, and principals who were present in the King George Memorial School-owned Events Hall.

Available to witness the competition were representatives of the First Bank Nigeria PLC, led by the Marketing Associate, Mrs Grace Odunjo, who also made the presentation of the First runner-up plaque award.

First Bank has actively been the pillar behind the successful execution of the spelling bee since its inception, supporting it with monetary grants and customized merchandise. According to the bank’s officials, the institution’s interest and involvement is to express its commitment to the educational development of Nigerian youths because they are the potential leaders of the country.

Other companies that supported the bee project include, Friesland Campina WAMCO Nigeria PLC, a manufacturer of peak milk brands, and Tasty Time Nigeria Limited, a beverage bottling company.

However, on the trail of the competition, is a bag of mixed reactions; while some of the participants found it an interesting bee competition, others lost out as well as schools that could not grab the trophies for overall winners or even make the second and third places, expressed disappointment at the way it went, accusing the judges of going out of the rules line. For instance, Meritland Group of Schools felt all her spellers were inconsiderably knocked out in the early rounds of the competition.

Meritland might have been disappointed because as the overall winner in all the categories in the previous competition with cash, trophy, and plaque awards came to King George Hall with a strong determination to repeat the feat but lost out.

The school principal, Mr. KUKOYI, who led the students to the bee was bitter and expressed disappointment but assured that his school would not, as a result, quit from future events. “We are very disappointed because we worked for this outing, and we are sure if the judges had played their roles with fairness, we would have made an impact.

Ironically, some of the students of the schools that made the day including King George, the overall winner also complained.

In response to the various issues raised, Ola Jones, Editor-in-Chief of Prime Apex News Magazine, the company organizing the annual competition, promised that the issues would be looked into particularly to guide against reoccurrence in the future. He appealed to the aggrieved, to take their fates with good spirit of sportsmanship. There is nothing handled by man that is perfect, only that by God,” he said to placate the complainants.

In a similar vein, Angela Daodu, coordinator of the bee competition, also appealed to those who expressed disappointment to allow frayed nerves to be calmed.

She however, expressed profound gratitude to all supporting companies that made the event a reality and further thanked all participants for comportment, the peace and tranquillity maintained throughout the competition by aligning with rules and guidelines, even though they had their reservations. “It is not impossible to have a situation like this; even in global and national competitions, we do have them,” she pointed out.