No plans to postpone National Sports Festival, says Olopade

The Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the 22nd National Sports Festival (NSF), tagged, “Gateway Games,” Bukola Olopade has described as untrue, insinuations in some quarters that the Games might not hold in January 2025.

The Federal Government approved January 2025 as the official date for the 2024 NSF during the meeting of the National Council on Sports held in Enugu, earlier this year.

A media report at the weekend claimed that the festival might not be held as scheduled. It did, however, not give full details, or reasons for the planned re-scheduling.

However, Olopade, a former sports commissioner in Ogun State, told The Guardian in a telephone chat, yesterday, that the festival would hold as scheduled in January 2025.

He said: “I don’t know where the report is coming from. We are going to host an amazing sports festival in January 2025. There was never a time that we changed the date of the festival.”

“For the first time in the history of the National Sports Festival, we are accommodating 15,000 athletes in one place.

The Ogun State government has entered into an agreement with the management of Babcock University for the accommodation, which is key in our effort to host one of the most successful events in the history of the National Sports Festival. Besides, Governor Dapo Abiodun has put in place a team of technocrats for the Games.

“The facilities that we are going to use for the National Sports Festival are not far away from the venues for the Games. So, I can say that there is no need for anyone to raise an alarm at this stage.”

The Guardian recalls that during the Council of Sports meeting in Enugu State, Sports Minister, Senator John Owan Enoh, noted that the sports festival plays a vital role in