National Executive Council (NEC), of Research Institutes Games Association of Nigeria (RIGAN) has mandated the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT) Zaria to move the 17th edition its games earlier scheduled to hold in Zaria to Abuja due to insecurity in Kaduna state.
RIGAN national president prof.Owolade Oluwaferonmi who stated this at NEC meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, said the Council also gave NITT six weeks to report it level of preparedness to host the games in Abuja.
He said hosting right for the games will be given to Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), if NITT fails to meet the six weeks deadline.
He said: “The main resolution reached is that the host institute, that is the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT) Zaria, the host institute for the 2021 game has been mandated by the national council to bring the game to Abuja due to insecurity in Kaduna state.
“The representative of the director Dr, Baba Ibrahim Mundi has accepted that the games will be moved to Abuja and all funds approved for the games should be used to secure facilities in Abuja for successful hosting of the games.
“
We discussed the challenges of moving the games to Abuja and NITT said the budget they have will be able to take care of the challenges. We have given them six weeks to respond and then after six weeks the NEC of RIGAN will come to Abuja to inspect and ascertain the readiness of the facilities.”
Speaking, the Director, Library and Information Services Department of NITT and a council member of RIGAN, Dr Baba Ibrahim Mundi said the institute is ready to host games in Abuja in spite of the logistics challenge.
” The change of venue is an unexpected thing, but if you look at it the other way round, it is also expected due to the circumstance in which we find ourselves with the issue of insecurity.
“Because of the spirit we have for sportsmanship where we want all of us to gather and be able to participate actively, the institute is left with no choice than for me to give an interim approval which I am going to communicate with my Director General.
“Looking for a new venue is going to be challenging but we going to work with those institutes that wanted the games to be hosted in Abuja in order to meet the time frame given to us,” he said.
