TheCable

Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo, has pledged the sum of N500,000 for each gold medal won by the state’s contingents to the just concluded 20th National Sports Festival (NSF) in Edo.

According to a statement by Kazeem Olalekan, media aide of the state’s commissioner for sports, Makinde announced the pledge while receiving the athletes at the governor’s executive chambers in Ibadan on Wednesday.

The governor added that “for each silver medal, we would give N350,000 and for each bronze medal, we would give N250,000.”

Makinde also assured that the rewards will be given to the athletes within the next two weeks.

We have already started planning for an even better outing in the next sports festival. Once again, congratulations to every member of our team at the National Sports Festival, Edo 2020. You did us proud! pic.twitter.com/n5gl57vuWo

— Seyi Makinde (@seyiamakinde) April 21, 2021

“It is with great pleasure that I welcome our athletes, our fighters, from Edo state. I am glad about the results and I want to commend the athletes and the coaches for a job well done and making Oyo state proud,” said Makinde in a video.

“For us to show appreciation to our medalist and the coaches, we won’t promise you something that we won’t be able to do. I will make some pledges now and it has to be done within the next two weeks, maximum.

“For each gold medal, we would pay N500,000, for each silver medal, we would give N350,000 and for each bronze medal, we would give N250,000 and for the coaches irrespective of the medal won, we would give each coach N500,000.”

Oyo state finished sixth at the NSF, scoring 31 gold, 30 silver and 42 bronze.

Delta state topped the medal table after winning 158 gold, 116 silver, and 110 bronze, while Team Edo, the host, came second with 129 gold, 104 silver and 108 bronze. Team Bayelsa finished a distant third with 56 gold, 55 silver, and 58 bronze.

The triumph was Team Delta’s sixth in a row.