Again, stakeholders in Abeokuta, capital city of Ogun state have continued to lament the sorry state of MKO Abiola Stadium , Abeokuta declaring that the place is now a deserted arena.
You may recall that the multi billion naira Stadium was placed on ban by LMC early this year because of its dilapidated nature. The stadium has become unsuitable for hosting any NFF recognised football matches which has now forced all the clubs in the state to relocate to the Dipo Dina International Stadium, Ijebu Ode.
A situation that has led to some opposition party members in the state to attribute the neglect to a deliberate plan by the State governor to move all sports activities to Ijebu Ode his home town.
However one of the stakeholder told our correspondent in confidence that the stadium neglect is a deliberate act by officials of the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the stadium management so as to force out funds from the state. government.
Meanwhile, other Football stakeholders in the state hold a different view on the matter, stressing that the stadium management had never been alive to their responsibilities. They argued that the management had abandoned the maintenance of the field for years.
“For example, the training pitch had been maintained for years by those teams training on the pitch. The terrace was covered by a team, the cutting of grass had been the duty of the teams pulling resources together for it. The surbub grass, the pole, the gutter, the surrounding trees all have been taken care of by few of those teams training on the pitch. Infact, several times, one of the teams had been purchasing a tanker of water to wet the field,”
The stakeholders alleged further that some staff of stadium had revealed that the atrocity was committed in order to facilitate contract work for the technical officer in the stadium, Mr. Yinka Oyelumade.
“Critical observation of the re-grassing work embarked by the stadium management showed that within the last 3 (weeks) it has not spread to more that 5 meters all together. The grass were been picked and uprooted by some of the stadium gardeners around the stadium complex. No wetting, no supervision and no technical touches in the haphazard work.
“If the State government refuse to pay attention to the unpalatable situation in MKO Abiola International Stadium, things might get worse than how it met it in 2019. When we thought that sporting activities in the state was dead. That could be a joke compared to what the situation might be in the next few months, “ he concluded
