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National Sports Festival Hosting Rights: Cross River loses N8bn over withdrawal 

The Cross River State Government lost over N8bn due to the withdrawal of its hosting rights of the 19th National Sports Festival by the Federal Government, Chairman of the State Sports Commission, Mr Orok Duke has said.

 

The Cross River State Government lost over N8bn due to the withdrawal of its hosting rights of the 19th National Sports Festival by the Federal Government, Chairman of the State Sports Commission, Mr Orok Duke has said.

Duke blamed contractors who failed to provide facilities needed for the festival, even after collecting money.

Interacting with reporters at the UJ Esuene Stadium in Calabar, on Wednesday, Duke said, “the process of bidding for the withdrawn right started with the government of Donald Duke and finally came to fruition in the regime of Governor Liyel Imoke but unfortunately after the expenditure of up to N8 billion nothing happened. If you go through the vouchers and see monies expended with good intention, you will weep for Cross River. That is the level we and this commission is just starting afresh to fight for the right of the people of Cross River state.

“The fact still remains that some of the facilities were not ready and not due to the fault of the Cross Rive State Government but due to the fault of some of the contractors. I want to say here that despite the fact that the hosting right is no more with us, some of the contractors still went to court. I want to put it on record that since some of the contracts had foreign exchange inputs or component and some of the equipment were purchased at the cost of N135 to a dollar, now that it is N370, they had brought in these equipment kept them in some ware houses, they want to extort money from the state government by forcing us to pay at the current rate which His Excellency, Governor Ben Ayade refused.”

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