Nigerian Wins Miss ECOWAS Peace Pageant

A Nigerian has emerged the winner of the 2012 edition of the Miss ECOWAS Peace Pageant held at Polo Club, GRA, Port Harcourt.

Nigeria’s representative, 23-year-old Zerra Banu won the prestigious crown after defeating 27 other contestants from the sub-region, through her superlative answers to questions raised by the panelists.

The new ECOWAS Peace Ambassador had earlier emerged the best speaker in a peace forum held at Hotel Presidential preceding the grand finale last Friday.

Annelise Konate, 18, from Cote D’voire emerged the first runner- up, while Keshia Ferguson, 21, from Ghana emerged the second runner up.

In her  speech, the new ECOWAS Peace Ambassador, said she would use her new position to promote peace and gender equality in the African sub-region and she also assured that she would work assiduously to promote youths development and entrepreneurship in Africa.

In his remark, the Rivers State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Dr Nabbs Imegu said the theme of the event, “Role of Women in Peace Building’ was apt as it draws attention to the need for women to be actively involved in global peace.

He said the Rivers State Government through the Ministry of Culture and Tourism will continue to align with the management of the 702 production, Organisation of the Pageant to attain the objective of building sustainable Peace and development in the West African sub-region.

Dr Imegu also expressed satisfaction over the level of progress made in Rivers State in the area of tourism development, which he noted eluded the state in the past through a growing spate of violence activities.