Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo on Monday received the 19th National Sports Festival’s torch of unity, saying the state was ready to use the competition to regain its lost glory.
Obaseki, who was represented by the Chairman of the state Sports Commission, Godwin Dudu-Orumen, said the occasion would no doubt motivate the state’s athletes to be better prepared.
He said: “We will participate well because the 19th National Sports Festival offers to us a platform to use as a launching pad for us to regain our lost glory in the sports arena.”
The governor said the festival would also help to achieve “the best in each of us for the common good of all’’.
Sunny Obot, the South-South Zonal Coordinator, Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development, while presenting the torch to Obaseki at the Government House in Benin, said the torch symbolises peace.
Obot, who said the torch was an indication that the festival had come to stay, gave assurance that the 19th national festival would be devoid of crisis and be violent-free.
He said: “Bringing the torch of unity to the governor serves as an open invitation of Edo athletes to the forthcoming National Sports Festival in Abuja.
“The state is known worldwide as a veritable ground for discovery of talents, and it is therefore expected as one of the major participants at the festival.’’
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the festival is billed to hold in Abuja from December 6 to December 16.
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