Nigeria’s minister of youth and sports development Sunday Dare has cleared all doubts on the state of readiness of the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium to host the 20th edition of the National Sports Festival billed to begin on March 20 in Benin City.
Speaking after an assessment visit to the Samuel Ogbemudia Sports Complex in Benin, he declared “I am impressed with what I have seen at the sports complex, it shows clearly that consistent work has been going on here.
“There has been huge commitment on the part of his Excellency Governor Godwin Obaseki and his Deputy Philip Shaibu to ensure that this place is completed in a record time.
“I have seen progress and I can say this stadium is about 85% or 90% ready for the National Sports Festival,” he declared
Governor Obaseki also reassured that the stadium would be completely ready by the first week of March.
It would be recalled that the last edition of the National Sports Festival was held in Abuja, with Delta State emerging as the overall winner.
Meanwhile, the minister has hailed the qualification of the women’s National Basketball team, D’Tigers for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
He said the Nigerian spirit and resilience ensured the girls berthing at sports biggest fiesta.
“We salute the courage, resilience and Nigerian spirit of our players which led to their qualification. We have no doubt that they will go with the same spirit and zeal to the games. We shall support all our athletes to attain their true potentials at the games.”
