Edo rejects January date for Sports Festival

Thu, Dec 10, 2020
By editor
2 MIN READ

Sports

THE Edo State Government has said that January 3, 2021 proposed date for the commencement of the 20th National Sports Festival (NSF) is not feasible.

The festival tagged Edo 2020, was initially slated for March but was postponed to December due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The festival was then slated for Benin from December 3 to 13 but after a virtual meeting between the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), and Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, the event has now been rescheduled to hold at the same venue from January 3 to 17, 2021.

However, the Edo State Deputy Governor, Comrade Philip Shuaibu, who is also the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee for the festival expressed worry over what he called lack of consideration of the athletes.

“We thought we would have been put in the mood the way it was done before the date is fixed. But since they have fixed the 3rd of January, fine for them. But to us, we feel they are not sensitive again to the environment.

“We have Christmas and the New Year celebrations. So they are telling us to bring our athletes and two days after the New Year celebration, they start the tournament. For us, that again is insensitive to the feelings of our people.

“The National Council of Sports the highest decision making as far as the tournament like this is concerned and they also need the host state to be part of the date they are fixing. But the top-down approach is what they have done again”.

The deputy governor now wants the Task Force to have a rethink of the proposed date to March or April in order to enable a good outing through adequate preparation by the athletes.

Fans have since expressed condolences to the music star.

The Nation

– Dec. 10, 2020 @ 11:49| GMT |

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