“I almost wept day I went to National Stadium Control Room” – Dare fires back at Critics

The Sports Minister Dare Sunday have responded to accusation bothering on The renovation of the National Stadium in Lagos and the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, Ibadan Nigeria soccernet reveals

He said the Stadia is owing a staggering sum of N950m for electricity bills

Sports minister Sunday Dare made this known during his recent visit to both stadiums.

“As at five years ago, the National Stadium, Lagos owed N600m in electricity bills while the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium owe about N350m. The water in Ibadan was restored after N150m was paid,” the minister said.

the frustrated electricity distribution company in charge of the Lagos stadium stopped sending bills to the sporting arena since 2018, after futile attempts to get the money paid by the sports authorities.

Dare lamented the rot of the Lagos stadium, where work is ongoing inside the main bowl pitch, tartan tracks and scoreboard, courtesy of billionaire businessman Kessington Adebutu’s N400m sponsorship.

The work has been ongoing, but we are working on a complete fix of the electrical problems because the connection is the most important: it connects the sprinklers, the scoreboard, you can’t go to the floodlights yet because to fix them, you need about N10bn.

All the cables have been stolen, what you have there is a carcass. I almost wept day I went to the stadium Control Room. Everything there is gone, except the wood,” Dare said.

Dare stated that the National Sports Industry Policy, which was approved last November by the President, Major General Muhammad Buhari (retd.), would help attract private funding to the sports sector.