Edo Government on Friday presented 8,000 mattresses, 8,000 pillows and 8,000 bedspreads to the University of Benin (UNIBEN), for use by athletes participating in the National Sports Festival, Edo 2020.
The university is the official camp for athletes and officials for the festival and the venue is being refered to as the games village with the students’ hostels being put to use.
Edo Deputy Gov. Philip Shaibu, who officially handed over the materials to the university authorities thanked them for allowing a successful partnership that resulted to hosting the festival.
According to him, we are here to do a lot of official presentation of some of these materials we bought for the school, having renovated the hostels.
“We also deemed it fit that the students will need the mattresses even as we also need it for the games.
“Gov. Godwin Obaseki insisted that:
“We are not going to use the ones you have.
“We have to leave a legacy behind.
“We should provide these mattresses and hand them over, after the games the school will also benefit from the games.
“They are about 8,000 mattresses, 8,000 pillows, 8,000 bed sheets; so we will be handing them over to you, combined with the renovated hostels.
“We want to thank you for partnering us to make sure that this game is successful, we are not taking that relationship for granted.
You have always been willing to assist us and that we want to really appreciate.
“We want to also inform you that by this evening (April 2) states will start arriving Edo in preparation for the games, also some events will be taking place in University of Benin Sports Complex.
“On behalf of the government, we thank you for your collaboration, we will continue to collaborate with you to improve sports in the state,” he said.
In her remarks, The Vice Chancellor of UNIBEN, Prof. Lillian Salami, expressed gladness for the gesture.
“I cannot thank this government enough, under the leadership of Gov. Obaseki, which we have worked together, very closely, on this issue of using UNIBEN as games village.
“I can also say categorically that I don’t think any other vice chancellor would have enjoyed the kind of cooperation that I have got from this government.
“For that reason, we are going to give you maximum support for the success of this hosting,” she said. (NAN)
