Abara, Samson Obi Win LBA For March

Abara has been particularly impressive in his interim role as head coach at Tornadoes since he took charge from Erasmus Onuh, who was relieved of his managerial duties in February.

Niger Tornadoes Head Coach, Hamza Abara, and Abia Warriors striker, Samson Obi, have been named the Manager and Player for March in the Nigeria Professional Football League respectively by the League Bloggers Awards.

The LBA announced the winners on Wednesday from a shortlist of eight nominees earlier in the week.

Abara has been particularly impressive in his interim role as head coach at Tornadoes since he took charge from Erasmus Onuh, who was relieved of his managerial duties in February.

In March, Abara led Niger Tornadoes to an unbeaten streak in their four outings, including draws at Kano Pillars and El-Kanemi Warriors.

Abara also guided Tornadoes to wins at home over champions Plateau United (1-0) and Sunshine Stars (1-0) to cap a fine performance in the month under review.

Akwa United’s Abdu Maikaba, Solomon Ogbeide of Lobi Stars and Emmanuel Deutsch of Abia Warriors were the other nominees for the manager’s award in March.

Obi claimed the player’s prize ahead of the trio of Lobi Stars striker Austin Ogunye and Wikki Tourists pair of Nafiu Kabuga and Abba Umar.

The four goals of Obi secured five of Abia Warriors’ eight points and accounted for 80 per cent of his club’s goals in March as well.

Two of Obi’s goals helped take a point each at Abia Warriors and FC Ifeanyiubah.

He scored twice in the 2-0 win over Wikki.

Abara and Obi will be presented with their awards on a later date.