Punch to mark 50th anniversary in grand style

Punch to mark 50th anniversary in grand style

PUNCH Nigeria Limited, publisher of the nation’s leading newspaper titles, The PUNCH, Saturday PUNCH, Sunday PUNCH and PUNCH Online, has lined up a number of interesting programmes to mark it’s 50th anniversary.

According to a report by The PUNCH, the media outfit attained 50 years on March 18, 2023. But its board of directors moved the 50th-anniversary celebration to this year because the anniversary month fell within an election month and year.

It quoted a statement issued on Thursday by the company’s General Manager, Corporate Services, Mrs Olufolakemi Gbemuotor, as saying the 50th anniversary would be marked with the 40th anniversary of the passing of the founding Chairman, the late Chief James Olubunmi Aboderin, who died on February 28, 1984, at the age of 50.

The week-long celebration will start on Saturday, February 24 with a novelty match between Team PUNCH and the Nigeria Media XI, a team made up of journalists from other newspaper houses in the country. The novelty match will take place at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena (formerly Onikan Stadium), Onikan, Lagos Island. Both teams will be coached by two former Super Eagles players, Victor Agali and Brown Ideye.

Beginning on Wednesday, February 28, PUNCH will hold a three-day photo exhibition at the Alliance Francaise de Lagos/Mike Adenuga Centre, Osborne Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, to afford its readers and other Nigerians opportunities to view the best photographs from its extensive pictorial archive of the biggest news events in the nation’s history.

The high point of the anniversary is a distinguished public lecture to be held on Thursday, February 29 at the Civic Centre, Ozumba Mbadiwe Road, Victoria Island, Lagos. The lecture is expected to play host to leaders from the public and private sectors.

The weeklong activities will continue on Saturday, March 2, 2024, at Eko Hotels and Suites in Lagos, where PUNCH will host a black-tie dinner to acknowledge the contributions of its stakeholders to the success of our organisation.