The Steering Committee of the 5th Federal Education Sector Games (FEDUGAM 2025) scheduled for Lafia, Nasarawa State has warned that the engagement of mercenaries at the competition would not be tolerated.

The event Consultant, Chief Okeyinka Matt, stated this yesterday at the football draw ceremony while addressing the press with the Deputy Chairman of the FEDUGAM Steering Committee and a Deputy Director, Federal Ministry of Education, Olapade Suleyman.

Okeyinka emphasized that any agency caught using non-bonafide staff at the games would be summarily disqualified from the games.

“What’s the essence when you are bringing non-staff to come and compete with members of staff? It doesn’t make any reasonable argument. The idea of the game is to bring the staff together to unwind at the end of the day. So, in specific terms, any agency found infringing on the rules by the Organizing Committee would be sanctioned and the persons involved would be reported to their agencies,” Okeyinka warned.

His position was also reinforced by Suleyman, who noted that the engagement of mercenaries would be counter-productive to the set objective of the games, which was to promote interaction and love among the agencies and the Ministry of Education.

He warned agencies against the temptation of circumventing the directive, noting that doing that would be considered a great offence that would not be taken with levity.

Suleyman similarly assured that resources for organizing the games had been allocated by the Ministry of Education, while the Minister of Education Dr Tunji Alausa has personally signed a strongly worded letter to all the agencies of the ministry to ensure full participation.

“It has never happened. The highest used to be the Director Human Resources signing, but this time to show some commitment and level of commitment, that has been done,” Suleyman said.

FEDUGAM would hold from August 4-10, with the Minister of Education expected grace the opening ceremony billed for August 5.

Earlier Okeyinka said the purpose of FEDUGAM is to bring unity, synergy, and friendship among all the agencies of Federal Ministry of Education and by extension, keep the workforce fit and enable the discovery talents.

The first edition of the games was held in 2017 while the last edition was held in Bauchi.

Thirteen sports will be featured in Lafia, including football, where only six agencies Tetfund, National Commission of Colleges of Education (NCCE), National Teachers Institute (NTI), Ministry of Education, National University Commission (NUC) and National Library are participating.