The House of Representatives on Thursday mandated the House committee on Sports to interface with the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports on the proposed transfer of National Stadium, Surulere Lagos to Lagos State government.
The also called for investigation into the usage of the huge budgetary allocations expended on the stadium in the last 5 years for the maintenance of the stadium.
The motion which generate heated arguments from members over the earlier position of the sponsor of the motion, Hon Danburam Nuhu who called for “need to investigate the terms/conditions of transfer of the National Stadium Surulere, Lagos to Lagos State government”.
The lawmaker had observed that to keep up with the maintenance of the stadium, “a huge budgetary provision is made annually and in 2016, for instance the sum of N400 million was appropriated for the purpose”.
According to him, the Stadium was one of the critical assets of the Federal Government, which has the capacity to accommodate 45,000 spectators and was structured to host national, regional, continental and international sporting events;
He added that over the years, the Stadium was practically abandoned, leading to the dilapidation of the facilities, saying that it took the intervention of the National Sports Commission in 2009 to renovate and upgrade the facilities to a world class stadium.
To this end, he said that the stadium, being one of the critical assets of the country, there was need to ensure that favourble terms/conditions are provided before the transfer of the stadium to Lagos State Government.
Some of the lawmakers including Hon Oghene Egoh, James Faleke, Funke Adedoyin while kicking against the motion said that there was no need to probe the proposed transfer of the stadium to the Lagos State government.
Hon Egoh said that, if Lagos State government is ready to repair the stadium, I don’t see what is wrong in that”, while Hon Faleke said that, “there is nothing to investigate in the motion”.
On her part, Hon Funke Adedoyin said that, the House should begin its inquiry to what has happened in the last 5 years.
The motion was passed when the Speaker, Hon Yakubu Dogara who presided over the session put the motion to vote.
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