It
doesn’t happen often, but once in a long while and even when you didn’t expect
or anticipate it. But it happened in Uyo, capital of Akwa Ibom State,
South-south Nigeria. A Nigerian choral group based in Akwa Ibom State during
the yuletide broke the world record for the largest number of Christmas carol
singers in the world.
The
record, which has been officially certified by the Guinness World Records and
pasted on its website, www.guinessworldrecords.com, was broken by the Godswill
Akpabio Unity Choir, a 25,272 man-choral group, in a concert in the Uyo
Township Stadium on Saturday, December 13, 2014 with Guinness World Records representatives
in attendance.
The
record consigned to the history books the former record of 15,674 carol
singers, which was achieved one year earlier, 2013 (on December 15, 2013), by a
group known as CENTI, Bogota, Columbia. The Godswill Akpabio Unity Choir
sang a medley of “The First Noel”, “Joy to the World,” “O Christmas Tree,”
“Hark the Herald the Angels Sing,” “Once in Royal David’s City” and “O Come All
Ye Faithful” in an electrifying rendition, which lasted over 20 minutes.
Guinness
World Records adjudicator, Liz Smith, who did the announcement in Guinness
World Record Headquarters, London, United Kingdom congratulated the choir and
said: “It is now time to reveal the report of the official attempt to break the
Guinness World Record of the largest group of carol singers.”
“Our
team of highly trained record specialists has reached a decision. The record to
beat was 15,674. I can now confirm that your attempt to break the record has
been successful. Congratulations on receiving a new Guinness World Records title.
“Godswill
Akpabio Unity Choir has achieved the title of the largest group of carol
singers. You are officially amazing,” she said with delight.
Breaking
the news to the Akwa Ibom people, Governor Godswill Akpabio said: “This month,
we broke the Guinness Book of World Records, for the largest number of Carol
Singers ever in the world. This momentous feat was achieved when Akwa Ibom
people drawn from all the nooks and crannies of the state came together in the
spirit of love and brotherhood. I believe that if we imbibe the virtue of
love and stand together in brotherhood in the New Year, we would keep setting
records and the walls of division, which have been erected by some selfish
politicians, would tumble down.”
In
his comments, the Permanent Secretary, Protocol, Akwa Ibom State Government,
and the organiser of the record-breaking choir, Mr. Aniekpeno Tom Mkpanang,
described the Guinness World Record as “another feather to the cap of a
record-breaking governor, who had already garnered record-breaking accolades
and honours for his great visionary leadership from the academia, churches,
traditional institutions and the global community. “Many of these institutions
are places you cannot buy records from, which dispels the notion of sceptics
that most such awards are bought. With this record from Guinness, earth and
heaven celebrate him,” Mkpanang stated, explaining that the feat was
accomplished via video adjudication audited by Alexander Forbes Consulting
Actuaries, while Guinness World Records were the supervising actuarial agency.
He further explained that two independent witnesses namely Mrs. Aity Dennis
Inyang, a renowned music artiste, and Mr. Ukeme Udo, a lecturer in the Music
Department of the University of Uyo, who were also in attendance confirmed the
unique record.
It
was also learnt that a Lagos-based company, Arcezia Security Solutions, served
as access managers and controlled the turnstiles that conducted the headcount
of the 25,272 record-breaking choirs.
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