By Uzor Odigbo
The 20th National Sports Festival will come to an abrupt end tomorrow due to the lack of funds.
This will go down memory lane as the first time in the almost five decades since the establishment of the sports festival to come to an end with more events to be decided.
The festival that was declared open on Tuesday by President Muhammadu Buhari amidst fanfare having suffered series of postponement due to COVID-19 pandemic is featuring athletes and officials from all the 36 states and Abuja.
The Edo State government in a message signed and made available to media at the ongoing festival by Ebomhiana Musa, Project Manager, Media and Communications, Edo 2020 confirmed this news.
With this development, this may not be the best of time for Edo State government, athletes, officials and other stakeholders taking part in the biennial sports fiesta.
Musa wrote: “The Local Organising Committee, Edo 2020 regrets to announce that it will end the games abruptly on Friday, April 9th, 2021 for lack of funds.
“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 Federal Government 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 other than to end the games at noon tomorrow.