The Deputy Governor of Edo State and chairman, Local Organising Committee (LOC), for the 2020 National Sports Festival, Hon. Comrade Philip Shaibu has revealed that the federal government is yet to redeem its pledge to render financial assistance to the state.
It will be recalled that last week, Edo state had threatened to shut down the festival over the refusal of the federal government to support the state with funds as promised.
However, the Presidency waded into the crisis and promised to credit the account of Edo state with N500m which the government considered to be too meagre.
It was gathered that to save the games and impending embarrassment, Shaibu was persuaded to accept the money as the federal government was said to have cited lack of funds as reason for the ‘meagre amount’.
In a brief chat yesterday, the Deputy Governor said “We are yet to get the money from the federal government. We borrowed money to ensure the festival holds. We are still waiting for the money.”
Meanwhile, after twelve days of action, the National Sports Festival will end today with the closing ceremony at the Samuel Ogbemudia stadium.
The festival tagged ‘Edo 2020’ was postponed three different times due to the coronavirus pandemic before it finally kicked off on April 2.
Over 7000 athletes and officials from the 36 states and the Federal capital Territory competed in 37 events.
Most of the events held at Samuel Ogbemudia stadium and over 22 venues scattered across the ancient city of Edo such as University of Benin, Ambrose Ali University Ekpoma, Government Science and Technical College (GSTC) in Benin, among others.
