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Peter Akinbo.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, says there are six states who are bidding to host the next National Sports Festival in 2024.
Dare stated this after watching a gymnastics competition in the multipurpose indoor sports hall of the Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba at the ongoing 21st NSF.
Dare added that confirmed that the Tony Nelsen-led committee responsible for picking the next hosts will submit their report on Friday.
“There is a process. By December 9th, my director, Tony Nelsen, will present to me the state that will host but until then, I won’t be able to disclose to you. They are working on evaluation and scoring before they decide.
“When we had Edo, Edo set a standard. It is a change of baton. When we had Delta, they knew they had to either give the same standard as Edo or do better.
“So we signposted that any state that would host must be ready. After Edo State, we set up a committee to review the MoU. So, before any state engages, there are clear terms and once you sign it, you must abide by it. That is very important, but this time around, we will announce the winner and then keep the runners-up close to our chest,” he said.
Dare added that there was a contingency plan should Delta fail to host and that there were six states already battling to host the next NSF.
“We knew at any point that if Delta would not make it, Abuja was ready. At this point, there are six states that are jostling and the interest is increasing. There is a timeline. We know when a state is not ready and if that happens, we will just switch over to the runners-up,” he said.