To ensure the safety of athletes, officials, and spectatators, security has been beefed up around venues of the maiden Niger Delta Sports Festival (NDSF), in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

Ahead of tomorrow’s opening ceremony of the festival, tight security arrangements could be noticed at the various venues of the festival as a detachment of operatives from the Nigeria Police, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and the Department of State Services are already on the ground at the six locations hosting the festival.

According to a member of the Security Sub-committee, who pleaded anonymity, there will be strict adherence to the access codes as unauthorised persons will not be allowed into restricted areas.

“There are defined access codes for different areas and only those with accreditation tags with specific access codes would be allowed into such areas,” the official said, adding that security vans have been stationed at strategic locations at the venues.

About 3,000 athletes, 800 coaches, and technical officials are expected at the games, which will feature 17 events from April 1 to 8. The festival will be officially flagged off by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, at the Uyo Township Stadium.

Members of the Akwa Ibom State Executive Council, led by the state’s Commissioner for Sports, Paul Bassey, made a last round of tour of the venue yesterday morning as directed by Governor Umo Bassey Eno. They were joined by the Co-Chairman of the Main Organising Committee (MOC), Sir Itiako Ikpokpo among others.

Bassey again expressed satisfaction with the level of preparations and assured that the state was ready for the festival.

Some of the inspected facilities include the renovated Olympic-size swimming pool at the Uyo Township Stadium and basketball, Volleyball, Handball, and Tennis courts.

Other venues are the Ultrafit Sports Centre, which will host table tennis and tennis as well as the Itam West Secondary School which will host Handball. The festival is sponsored by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and supported by Premium Trust Bank.

Meanwhile, accreditation of athletes, coaches, officials, and media commenced yesterday at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo. To ensure a seamless process, the organisers set up points to attend to each state, media, and members of the Local Organising Committee and Main Organising Committee, as well as, invited guests.

Speaking on the exercise, one of the leaders of the Ondo State contingent, Akintunde Akinsemola, expressed satisfaction with the process and commended the organisers for ensuring that there were no unnecessary delays in getting identified and attended to.

“The process was orderly as tents were provided for us with seats and those responsible for the issuance of the tags were well prepared, picking up names from their system and briskly attending to registered persons,” Akinsemola stated.

The Chairman of the NDSF Media Sub-committee, Harry Iwuala, explained that a lot of planning was done to ensure that every category of participants had a pleasant experience.

“The Organising Committee is peopled with experienced sports administrators, media practitioners and former international athletes who have over the years attended global sports events. So, they brought their experience to bear on the process.

“Just as plans have been made to ensure that athletes and officials would not be distracted by any forms of discomfort in the course of participating, we made sure that accreditation, which is the first point of contact with the games on arrival is hitch-free,” Iwuala said. Most of the state contingents are expected to arrive in Uyo today and their accreditation will be completed on their appearance at the centre.