The Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, has restated the ministry’s commitment to ensuring that the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, was restored to its original standard.
Dare, in a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday through his media office, charged the Implementation Committee on the Report of the Ministerial Task Force on the National Stadium, Surulere, to carry out their assignment diligently.
The minister made the assertion while presiding over the inaugural meeting of the Ministerial Implementation Committee where he also reassured that the edifice would be restored to its original blueprint.
“The committee’s role is to ensure delivery of the facilities at the stadium in line with the new vision of the ministry on the comprehensive audit at the National Stadium, Surulere.
“This is a monument of national pride which had suffered neglect for over 18 years due to limited resources.
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“We have seen a departure from its original blueprint to a point in which you could hardly recognise the stadium as a sporting facility,” he said.
The minister recalled that on June 9, he set up a Ministerial Task Force on the National Stadium, Surulere, to verify and screen the legality or otherwise of the occupants “the national stadium is a Federal Government’s property.
“Therefore, no private or individual structure should find its way there without the approval of the Federal Government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, cleared from the office of the Minister.
“Any of such structures that falls short of these two major approvals is in contravention and as such remains illegal,” Dare said.
The minister expressed confidence in the committee headed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Gabriel Aduda.
“Other seasoned sports administrators and experienced individuals from the ministry, and the organised private sector are to carry out the task of restoring the National Stadium Surulere to its original blueprint,” he said.
Aduda, while responding on behalf of the Committee, thanked the minister for the opportunity to serve.
He assured him that the committee would deliver on its mandate/terms of reference within the time frame.
