Amos Adamu praises Edo State, condemns use of mercenaries to win medals

FORMER Director General of the defunct National Sports Commission ( NSC), Dr. Amos Adamu, has commended the Edo State government for the state- of- the- art facilities it provided for the 20th National Sports Festival.

Speaking to The Guardian on Monday, Adamu, who came to the University of Benin Sports Complex main bowl to watch the football final between Team Edo and Lagos, said the Festival was going on well as expected, adding that he was particularly happy that some primary and higher institutions of learning also benefitted from hosting the festival.

“The Edo State government has tried by putting on these facilities and I am happy that they even went to some secondary schools and University of Benin to upgrade the facilities there. “What is very important is the sports facilities and if you don’t have them you cannot perform well. But government has provided facilities,” he said Adamu condemned some states’ penchant to hire mercenaries to win medals, describing as unfortunate the alleged deployment of a Kenyan by one of the states to compete in the 10,000 metres race. He said, “You cannot stop athletes from moving to other states to compete during the National Sports Festival. There is a law against it. “You know why you cannot stop it? It is because there are some states that do not show interest in sports, and that is why they don’t even train their athletes. It is only when the Festival comes that they want to send athletes to the sports festival.”