By Peter Akinbo
•We gave visiting teams money to buy fuel –Okowa
With over 14,000 athletes competing at the ongoing 21st National Sports Festival in Asaba, Delta State, some participants at the Games have raised concerns over accommodation, electricity and transportation arrangements at the event tagged ‘Nigeria’s Olympics.’
There were concerns over whether Delta could host the largest number of participants ever at the national event, at the scheduled date, but the state completed the facilities for the event in record time, to the admiration of sports minister Sunday Dare and sports-loving Nigerians.
However, in separate chats with our correspondent, some of the participants rued the poor arrangement on ground for their contingents.
Team Osun Para-table tennis coach Adigun Mutiu said he had high expectations ahead of the trip to Asaba, but confessed he was now disappointed on his arrival.
“Our expectation is that Asaba will give us the best festival experience, but accommodation has posed a great challenge since we arrived. Can you imagine that we don’t have light and water (in our camp)?
“For some of us from Osun, we feel really bad about that. We aren’t supposed to lack these basic amenities for a day. So far too, we haven’t seen shuttle buses for easy transportation,” he said.
