The Abuja National Stadium has been placed as an alternative venue for the 19th National Sports Festival as indications emerged that the designated host, Cross River State, may not be ready for the event scheduled to hold in November.
Giving the hint of a possible shift of the venue, the Ministry of Youth and Sports in a release yesterday said the fiesta may be moved to Abuja “because the Cross River state that won the rights to host the festival are not forthcoming with a date for the event.
It said that Cross River State is shifting the financial burden of hosting the festival to the sports ministry.
According to the Minister of Youth and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung, the Main Organizing Committee for the festival is asking for a whooping N650m to host the festival.
“They have insisted that we provide as much as N650 million for them to host the festival. If we had N650 million, then why do we have to go to Calabar?" Dalung queried.
"We conveyed the National Council for Sports in Calabar and made several inspection tour of facilities to ensure that we hold the event this year but it does appear to us in the ministry that we might be going back to Plan B. Our plan B is that if Cross River state cannot host the event, we will come back to Abuja and host the National Sports Festival. We are determined because without the National Sports Festival we cannot enrich the talent profile of our athletes for national and international competitions.