The 19th edition of the National Sports Festival is set to begin today at the National Stadium in Abuja after much uncertainty surrounding it.
The Abuja National Stadium will be the home of athletes from the 36 states of Nigeria for the next 10 days as most of the sporting events will be holding here.
The sports fiesta returns after a long six-year wait. It was originally scheduled for 2014 in Cross River State in order to coincide with Nigeria’s centenary celebration but was shelved due to lack of proper preparation and several logistic issues.
The Sports Ministry first began preparations for the games with the symbolic torch passing from state to state and the festival will flag off with the opening ceremony scheduled to hold by 4 pm today.
According to the Sports Minister Solomon Dalung, he said about 8,861 athletes are expected to participate in the Festival. Out of the 8,861 participants, 7,227 are athletes, 710 are coaches, 222 are team members, while 702 are state officials.
The Governor of Delta state Ifeanyi Okowa has promised #TeamDelta ₦1 Million for every gold won by them at the Festival
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