Shock As National Sports Festival Comes To Abrupt End Over Paucity Of Fund

Barely 24 hours after a colorful opening ceremony, the local organizing committee of the ongoing national sports festival announced Wednesday night that it will bring the festival to abrupt end Thursday afternoon, over lack of fund.

Recall that Governor Godwin Obaseki had complained that the state was broke, having expended its meager resources to managing the Coronavirus pandemic.

But the federal minister of youth and sports development, Sunday Dare, assured that the federal government will release fund to the host state, to host the sports fiesta tagged Edo 2020.

In a statement released Wednesday night by the Project Manager, Media & Communications of Edo 2020, Musa Ebomhiana, in a statement at about 10.30 pm on Wednesday, said the local organizing committee no longer has funds to prosecute the festival.

“The Local Organising Committee, Edo2020 regrets to announce that it will end the games abruptly tomorrow, Thursday, April 8, 2021 for lack of funds,” the statement noted.

Musa in the statement said the decision to bring the festival to an abrupt end was taken at an emergency meeting held Wednesday evening.

The Committee said it had to take this hard decision due to lack of funds, having expended its reserves to kick start the games.

It said the federal government had not redeemed its pledge to support the host state financially for the cost of postponements.

“So, we are left with no option than to end the games at noon tomorrow,” Musa noted.
-Niger Delta Today