President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the postponement of the 20th National Sports Festival (NSF) tagged “Edo 2020’’ as a precautionary move against the spread of COVID-19.
The Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, announced this on Tuesday via his Twitter handle.
“President Muhammadu Buhari approves the postponement of the National Sports Festival Edo 2020 as a precautionary move against COVID-19 spread.
“Following the briefing of Mr. President from myself and the Minister of State for Health on COVID 19, Mr. President approved the immediate postponement of Edo Sports festival to a future date,” he said in a series of tweets.
The Special Adviser on Media to the minister, John Joshua-Akanji, also confirmed the postponement.
He, however, stressed that details would be provided later as the minister was still meeting with relevant stakeholders, following his briefing of Mr President.
The 20th NSF was scheduled to kick off on Sunday at the newly-renovated Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin.
The competition, which was last held in December 2018 in Abuja and now billed to hold at the stadium and 16 other venues in Benin, was expected to end on April 1.
Meanwhile, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has suspended the National Aviation Conference earlier scheduled for 1st to 4th April, 2020, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
A statement signed by General Manager, Corporate Affairs of FAAN, Mrs Henrietta Yakubu, on Tuesday in Lagos said that the suspension was necessary to safeguard public health in view of the Coronavirus pandemic.
She said that the World Health Organisation recently declared COVID 19 a global pandemic and advised individuals and organisations to avoid clustered gatherings to prevent the spread of the virus.
The spokesperson said that FAAN regretted the postponement and would announce a new date for the conference as soon as possible.
