By Ben Efe 19-5-2025
Delta State has cleared up all medal winning bonus for athletes and coaches from the 2022 National Sports Festival they hosted and won.
Gold medalists were promised N1.5m, silver N1m, and bronze N500,000 by the former Governor of Delta State Ifeanyi Okowa, but he couldn’t pay up before he left office in 2023.
Ahead of the 2024 NSF which is already in progress in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Governor Sherrif Oborevworie acting on the promptings of the Delta State Sports Commission released the funds to pay the athletes and coaches concerned, but most of the athletes who helped Delta win in 2022 had moved on to other states when their money was not forth coming.
To pin them down the Delta State Sports Commission had stalled on paying them insisting that they must represent Delta at the Gateway Games. However, a legal representative of the athletes and coaches in a letter addressed to Governor Oborewvorie demanded that the athletes be paid or they may be forced to go to court.
“We have received alerts for our money for the medals,” said one of the athletes affected by the delay.
“Delta did the right thing honouring their word and it did matter whether it was the former governor who made the pledge government is government. And as far as the athletes have delivered, they ought to be paid.”
When reached for comments on the issue Delta Sports Commission chairman Onos Oborevworie declined to make and remarks.
National Sports Festival: Delta pays athletes, coaches 2022 medal bonus after threat of legal action
