Athletes, officials commend accreditation process

The accreditation of athletes, coaches, officials and media for the Niger Delta Sports Festival (NDSF) commenced Monday afternoon at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo.

To ensure a seamless process, the organisers set up points to attend to each state, media and members of the Local Organising Committee and Main Organising Committee as well as invited guests.

Akintunde Akinsemola, one of the leaders of the Ondo State delegation who arrived Sunday night, expressed satisfaction with the process and commended the organisers for ensuring that there were no unnecessary delays in getting identified and attended to.

“The process was orderly as tents were provided for us with seats and those responsible for the issuance of the tags were well prepared, picking up names from their system and briskly attended to registered persons,” Mr Akinsemola stated.

Harry Iwuala, the Chairperson of the NDSF Media Sub-committee, explained that a lot of planning was made to ensure that every category of participants had a pleasant experience.

“The Organising Committee is peopled with experienced sports administrators, media practitioners and former international athletes who have over the years attended global sports events. So, they brought their experience to bear on the process.

“Just as plans have been made to ensure that athletes and officials would not be distracted by any forms of discomfort in the course of participating, we made sure that accreditation, which is the first point of contact with the games on arrival is hitch-free,” Mr Iwuala said.

Most of the state contingents are expected on Tuesday, April 1st and their accreditation will be completed on their appearance at the centre.

Security Beefed Up Around NDSF Venues

Meanwhile, security deployment has been activated at the various venues of the Niger Delta Sports Festival (NDSF) as a detachment of operatives from the Nigeria Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corp and Department of State Security are already on ground at the six locations hosting the festival.

According to a member of the Security Sub-committee who pleaded anonymity, there will be strict adherence to the access codes as unauthorised persons will not be allowed into restricted areas.

“There are defined access codes for different areas, and only those with accreditation tags with specific access codes would be allowed into such areas,” the official said.

Security vans have been stationed at strategic locations at the venues as of Monday morning.

About 3000 athletes, 800 coaches and technical officials are expected at the games which will feature 17 events from April 1-8.

The festival is sponsored by the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC) and supported by Premium Trust Bank. The NDSF will be officially flagged off by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday, April 2 the Uyo Township Stadium.

Paul Bassey leads Akwa Ibom Commissioners on final facility tour

Members of the Akwa Ibom State Executive Council led by Paul Bassey, the Commissioner for Sports, made a last round of tour of the venues on Monday morning as directed by Governor Umo Bassey Eno.

They were joined by the Co-Chairman of the Main Organising Committee (MOC), Itiako Ikpokpo and some other of the members.

Mr Bassey again expressed satisfaction with the level of preparations and assured that the state was ready for the festival.

Some of the inspected facilities include the renovated Olympic-size swimming pool at the Uyo Township Stadium, Basketball, Volleyball, Handball and Tennis courts.

Other venues are the Ultrafit Sports Centre, which will host table tennis and tennis, as well as the Itam West Secondary School that will also host Handball.

The festival is sponsored by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and supported by Premium Trust Bank.

About 3000 athletes and 500 officials are expected at the games, which will feature 17 sports.