By Abba Gwale
The Coordinator of National Sports Festival, Ebomhiana Miss, has said the ongoing National Sports Festival will end today over the failure of the Federal Government to release funds.
In a statement released on Wednesday night, Ebomhiana confirmed that the decision was taken after an emergency meeting of the Local Organising Committee headed by Edo State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu.
He said the Edo State Government will shut down the ongoing 20th National Sports Festival by 12 noon on Thursday.
“The Local Organising Committee, Edo2020 regrets to announce that it will end the games abruptly tomorrow, Thursday, April 8, 2021, for lack of funds,” he said.
He added that “Rising from an emergency meeting this evening, the LOC says it has to take this hard decision due to lack of funds having expended its reserves to kick start the games.
“Regrettably, the FG is yet to redeem its pledge to support us as the host state financially for the cost of postponements. So, we are left with no option but to end the games at noon tomorrow.”
Before the competition started last week, there was several postponement of the festival as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
At least 8,000 athletes from different states and FCT Abuja are participating in the festival.
24 hours after the commencement of the competition, Edo State government had raised the alarm over the Federal Government’s failure to provide fund.
