The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has approved January 3-17, 2021 for the National Sports Festival, Edo 2020.
The new date was arrived at during a virtual a meeting on Thursday evening, convened by the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr Sunday Dare, which reviewed circumstances around the recent rescheduling of the sports fiesta according to a statement signed by the Permanent Secretary, Gabriel T. Aduda.
It will be recalled that the proposed 2020 NSF has suffered series of postponement in recent due to COVID-19 situations.
Few weeks ago, the National Council of Sports (NCS) scheduled the festival to hold between December 3 and 18, 2020, but members of the Presidential Task Force later objected.
“The new date is to allow the PTF, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Edo State Government and the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to complete the necessary steps and processes, as assigned, to ensure a hitch free Festival and deployment of rapid diagnostic test kits for over 11,000 athletes,” the statement said.
The virtual meeting had in attendance the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, PTF National Coordinator – Dr. Sani Aliyu, PTF’s Deputy National Incident Manager/ Head of Operations – Dr Assad Hassan, Representatives of NCDC, amongst others.