NSF: No room for lapses - Adamu

06.04.2008

THE Main Organising Committee (MOC) of the National Sports Festival billed for Kaduna in November will not tolerate lapses from the hosts, Director-General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Dr. Amos Adamu, has said in Kaduna.

Adamu made the statement at a joint meeting of the MOC and the LOC after inspecting the facilities being put in place by the host for the fiesta.

He said that the LOC was composed of highly-placed government officials who were responsible enough to make the nation and athletes proud of the festival.

“We cannot afford to disappoint the nation because the athletes and the entire nation are already looking towards a festival of international standards. “We are going to publish and circulate the festival’s rules and regulations to avoid communications defect that could derail the organisation of the event.

“Our intention is to organise a sports festival of international standards that will make the athletes and invitees from the rest of the world to be proud of Nigeria,” he said. Adamu urged members of the MOC and LOC to always attend meetings approved in the harmonised roadmap for the organisation of the event.

Members of the joint body had earlier undertaken an assessment tour of the facilities mainly sited at the Murtala Mohammed Multipurpose Square billed to host the preliminary stage of the festival.

The projects currently in various stages of execution include tennis, volleyball courts, an astro-turfed hockey stadium, Olympic sized swimming pool and rugby field. During the inspection, contractors handling the projects pledged to complete and hand them over to the government ahead of the festival.

They were, however, told that the state Governor, Namadi Sambo had last Wednesday revoked the contract for the construction of a modern Indoor Sports Hall due to a breach of agreement. According to the roadmap, the MOC and LOC will undertake another round of facilities’ tour on May 19 to ascertain the level of work at the venues.