BY SUNDAY AKINTOYE
Chairman National Sports Commission, Mallam Sheu Dikko, has reacted to the power outage that occurred on Saturday night during the 10,500 meters in the ongoing Gateway Games known as Ogun 2024 National Sports Festival at the MKO Abiola Sports Arena.
Dikko, while addressing journalists at the world press conference held on Sunday admitted power failure during the event but disappointed how it was being celebrated on social media.
“What happened on Sunday night was just a technical glitch which is beyond human power and let me say that technical glitch(es) can happen at anytime and it also happens at the international sporting events so Nigeria should not be an exception.
“Thank God that I was there when it happened and the question we should ask ourselves is that for how long the power lasted.I can tell you for free that is not up to 35 minutes,”he said
The soft spoken sports administrator also tendered unreserved apology to sporting loving Nigerians for power outage noted that all the challenges and difficulties surfaced during the festival are attended to.
Commenting on his assessments on the ongoing festival in Abeokuta, Dikko expressed his satisfaction with the organisation and media coverage of the biggest sporting event in the country but highlighted some difficulties observed during the festival.
“Let me use this conference to thank my colleagues for the job well done.I am happy with what I saw here as regards to sport facilities, athlete’s performance and organisation of the event and I also appreciate the media for their support given the event to make it a huge success,”he said.
Dikko also reinstated his commitment on school sports saying that the commission would do everything to bring back sport development through school sports and prepare the discovered talents for future competitions.
