The Governor of Cross River State, southern Nigeria, Senator Bassey Otu, has presented cash prizes to winners of the Voices of Paradise Choral Competition.

The event, which started three weeks ago when the 32 days Calabar Festival was flagged off, had the participation of 14 choral groups competing in two categories namely classical and contemporary.

By the second week, four groups were eliminated leaving ten to compete at the semi final, which then gave rise to the eight choirs that qualified for the grand finale last Sunday.

At the end of the renditions, the Promise Land choir and Creator’s Family choir emerged first placed winners of the classical and contemporary categories respectively and each presented with a three million naira cash prize.

Governor Bassey Otu, who attended the competition alongside his wife, Reverend Eyoanwan and his deputy, Mr. Peter Odey, presented the cash prizes to the first place winners.

In second place under the classical category was The Masters choir and Xtreme Praise choral group emerged second best contemporary choir and the wife of the governor, Mrs. Eyoanwan Otu presented two million naira cash prize to the two sets.

Similarly, the deputy governor, Mr. Odey did the honours of presenting the third place cash prize of one million naira to the von orchestra in the classical category, while zamar gospel choir also received the third position cash prize in the contemporary league .

Members of the Cross River State executive council, state legislators, the executive committees of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN)also attended the event held at the main bowl of the U. J. Esuene Stadium in Calabar.

Prior to the competition, some local gospel artiste took centre stage and entertained spectators, who turned out in large numbers to witness the grand finale rooting for their most favoured choral group based on creativity, and originality of the songs woven around the theme for this year’s Carnival Calabar theme “Season of Sweetness”.