The 20th National Sports Festival which was to be staged in Benin City, Edo State has been postponed indefinitely by the federal government over fears of the Covid-19.
The 20th edition of the biennial Games was scheduled to hold from Sunday 22nd of March till Wednesday, 1st of April, 2020.
The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development made this known yesterday following the directive of the President, Muhammadu Buhari to postpone the Games as precautionary move against COVID-19 spread.
The Sports Minister, Sunday Dare through his Twitter handle said the decision to postpone the Games was taken between himself and the health minister which was approved by the President.
“A meeting between the Ministers of Health, myself and a few other experts just concluded now at the Health Ministry to review the COVID-19 situation vis-a-vis Edo 2020 Sports festival towards making decision on the postponement.
“President Muhammadu Buhari approves the postponement of the National Sports Festival Edo 2020 as a precautionary move against COVID-19 spread following the briefing from myself and health Minister,” he said.
However, a new date would be released based on the current progress on the containment of the virus.
The decision to suspend the sports festival didn’t come to many as a surprise considering that major sporting events around the world had suffered similar suspensions.
Only yesterday, UEFA announced the suspension of the 2020 EURO football championship just as majors football leagues in Europe like the La Liga, the English Premier League, Serie A and a host of others had been suspended.
