The National Sports Commission has revealed to the House of Representatives Committee on Sports that the amount of money coughed-out in re-grassing the Abuja National Stadium was N96 million about $600,000.
Addressing the committee members, the Director of Finance and Administration in the Sports ministry, Alhaji Mustapha Mohammed declared that the sum was paid to Julius Berger, the contractor that replaced the grass on the football pitch.
“We spent N96 million to re-grass this pitch,” Mohammed told puzzled committee members while insisting that did not include the amount spent to commission the stadium that was once used to prosecute Super Eagles home matches.
In the same vein, chairman of the committee, Godfrey Ali Gaiya has refused to accept the amount spent because to him the job done is substandard.
“My God, how can you use N96million to re-grass a pitch, and this job was tested by nature right in our presence when it drizzled for few minutes and the whole place became water-logged, we have asked them to invite the contractors to come and do a good job.”
“My verdict is that I am not comfortable with the level of water logged on the pitch. I was in Calabar and it rained for three days non-stop before the match and you cannot compare Calabar that is in tropical environment to Abuja that is in the Savannah where rain is lighter.”
“So, if it rained in Calabar for three days when Nigeria played Malawi and I never saw anything like waterlogged spot, why should ordinary drizzling cause water ponds on the renovated Abuja pitch,” Gaiya asked.
“We don’t want to aggravate our mood further so we decided to be silent on that, but this is not good for our sport,” Gaiya fired back.
