Programme
By Monday Ajogun
Benin, April 17, 2018 (NAN) Edo’s Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, on Tuesday asked the state’s Sports Council to immediately come up with a template for its participation in two national events holding later this year.
Shaibu, while giving the charge when the Council’s management visited him in Benin, said the state government needed to get things going ahead of the events.
“We need an early blueprint to ensure members of the contingent win medals at the National Sports Festival (NSF) and the National Youth Games (NYG), with both holding in the year’s last quarter,’’ he said.
The deputy governor said one of the strategies of the state’s present administration was to ensure the proper training of athletes before any tournament.
Shaibu expressed the state government’s commitment to the development of schools sports, as well as inter-local government competitions, to develop talents for future tournaments.
He also restated the state government’s commitment to the training of not only the athletes but the staff of the Sports Council also.
“This is to ensure they are in tune with modern trends and techniques,’’ the deputy governor said.
Earlier, the Council’s Director of Sports, Sunny Ariende, had disclosed that the Council would organise a state sports festival in September to select and prepare athletes for the two competitions.
Ariende appealed to the state government to support the athletes going for the NYG.
“This is in order to enhance the athletes’ ability to win medals which will qualify them to win Federal Government scholarships,’’ he said.(NAN)
AJOM/JI/OLAL
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(Editing by Joseph Idika and Olawale Alabi)