Delta State ‘Will Be Ready’ For NSF – Tonobok Okowa
The Chairman of the Delta State Sports Commission, Tonobok Okowa says the State “will be ready” for the National Sports Festival (NSF) as the Delta State government will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development ahead of next year’s edition of the competition, tagged Asaba 2022.
Delta State was awarded the hosting rights for the biennial Sports fiesta at the end of the Edo 2020 event. Team Delta are the current champions of the National Sports Festival having won the competition seven times from the last nine editions since 2000.
Delta is also the champion of the National Youth Games, winning all six editions of the games since inception in 2013. The Chairman of the Delta State Sports Commission, Tonobok Okowa, stated that the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Sports Ministry would take place soon.
Okowa also revealed that Delta State would construct additional new facilities ahead of the National Sports Festival saying: “The facilities will be ready.”
Okowa stated that having retained the National Sports Festival title in Edo State, and the National Youth Games in Ilorin, Kwara State, the attention of the State Government had shifted to preparing and hosting one of the best games in the annals of the National Sports Festival.
He hinted that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa was happy with the State’s performance at the National Youth Games in Ilorin, adding that Delta State is now ready to kick start preparations for the hosting of the National Sports Festival in 2022.
The Delta State Sports Commission chairman said that the contract for the new venues for the Games would soon be awarded, stressing that majority of the facilities were already on ground. Okowa said there was the need to add new facilities to ensure that the state lived up to its billing as the home of sports in Nigeria.
On plans by the Sports Ministry to tackle age cheats at the Youth Games, Okowa lauded the Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, for taking the decision. He stressed that the Delta State Sports Commission had been at the forefront of discouraging age cheats at the Games.
Chidi Nwoke/The Guardian.
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