The much postponed 20th edition of the National Sports Festival will now hold between April 2nd and 14th in Edo state, following the continuous drop in the cases of coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria
Before the new date, March 18th to April 1st, 2020 date was fixed for the games, after several postponements due to the pandemic which again changed .
The Ministers of Youths and Sports Development, Sunday Dare on Friday confirmed the new date, during his visit to the Edo State Government House in Benin City, the Edo State capital.
Dare also revealed that Edo State would be used for the National Camp in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games taking place later this year.
The Federal Government according to the minister, is determined to go ahead with the Unity Games which is the sequel to participation at the Tokyo Games.
He added that the athletes for the games would be reduced from 14,000 to 8,000 athletes, due to logistics under the circumstances occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic
Responding, Governor Godwin Obaseki expressed the readiness of his administration to host the games while appealing to the Federal Government to make funds available to enable the state to take good care of visiting athletes and officials at the sports festival.
The several postponements of the sports fiesta according to Obaseki, have taken its toll on finances of the State Government
Obaseki expressed confidence that the country is winning the war against the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes the games safe enough to go ahead as scheduled
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