National Sports Festival: Delta State Approves Cash Reward For Champions
The Delta State Government have approved the sum of N456 million to reward Team Delta athletes, who emerged champions of the 20th edition of the National Sports Festival, tagged Edo 2020, held at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin, Edo State.
The State Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu, who disclosed this to reporters in Asaba, said this is part of the decisions reached at State Executive Council (EXCO) meeting held on Tuesday in the Government House. Team Delta scooped 158 gold medals, 116 silver and 110 bronze medals for a total of 384 medals at the Festival.
Aniagwu said though times a hard, the government decided to fulfil the promise made to the athletes because of the honour they brought to the state and to encourage them to do more. Before the athletes proceeded to Edo 2020, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, just like he did in 2019 in Abuja, promised that each medal will attract some prize.
“As we speak, because of that promise, the athletes repeated the same feat and the governor approved funds to be paid and that is going to cost us about N456 million to settle that,” Aniagwu said.
Aniagwu, who was in company of his counterparts in Higher Education, Prof. Patrick Muoboghare, and Prince Emmanuel Amgbaduba of the Oil and Gas Ministry, said government also approved N600 million counterpart funds to attract funds from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) programmes for 2020 project cycle.
Chidi Nwoke/NAN.
