The Ministry of Special Duties yesterday at the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt beat their Power counterparts 3-2 on penalties to emerge winners of the 2011 Rivers State Civil Service Football competition, also known as the Head of Service, HOS Cup.

With the victory, the Special Duties team succeeds the Ministry of Information and Communications, which they beat also on penalties in the semi final stage, as the champions of the competition.

The final match, which was part of activities to mark the grand finale of the 2011 Civil Service week celebration, failed to produce any goal within regulation time, and had to be decided via spot kicks.

For their efforts, the new champions carted home the winners’ trophy donated by Eastern Bulkcem Plc  and a prize money of N250,000.

The runners-up, Ministry of Power, earned the sum of N200,000, while third placed Ministry of Environment went home with the sum of N150,000 prize money.

Also, in the maiden women’s 4×50 metres relay race, Ministry of Power came first to win gold medal and the sum of N150,000, Ministry of Commerce & Industry and their Finance counterpart finished second and third to earn silver and bronze respectively./ They went home with the sum of N100,000 and  N80,000 prize money.

Speaking during the closing ceremony, the Head of Service, Mrs Esther Anucha urged participating teams to avoid the win at all cost syndrome. She reminded all that the essence of the competitions were to foster friendship and healthy competition among Civil Servants in the state, and urged them to abide by the rules.

She , however, stated that the use of mercenary in the competition would be severely punished if discovered, even after the conclusion of the games.

The HOS expressed appreciation to all those who contributed to the success of the Civil Service Week celebration, especially, Eastern Bulkcem Company, Skye Bank, the Secretary to Rivers State Government, commissioner of Information and Communication among others.