Nigeria’s Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the novel covid-19 pandemic on Thursday threw more confusion on the conclusion of the 2019/20 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season.
Speaking at Thursday’s press briefing of the Task Force, PTF Chairman Boss Mustapha, who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) says allowing sporting activities to return is not a priority to them.
“We are opening up the country in a deliberate and very very slow pace manner. Most countries are saying that when they (sports) finally resume, it will be teams playing in empty stadiums or stadia,” said Mustapha at the briefing.
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Nigeria’s top flight football division, the NPFL was suspended in mid-March due to the Coronavirus pandemic and there have been propositions on how to either end or conclude the season in past weeks.
Mustapha says the current situation of the pandemic in the country is being assessed especially after government announced some measures to ease the lockdown in late May.
“We will get there. But for now, we are concerned with the few activities we have allowed to resume and we have given ourselves one month with which to do a thorough assessment and see how we fare.
“That tells into the question that whether with the increase we’re seeing, whether there will be a review of the ease of lockdown,” he added.
Mustapha’s comments do not only cast shadows of doubts on the football league season but also the country’s National Sports Festival (NSF) which is still being touted to go ahead this year by the Minister of Sports and Youth Development Sunday Dare.
As of Thursday afternoon, there have been 13,873 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Nigeria with 4,351 recoveries and 382 deaths recorded.
