Onikan Stadium ready this month, says Dawodu

Lagos State Commission for Youth and Social development, Olusegun Dawodu, has declared that the Onikan Stadium, which is being rebuilt by the state government, is 90 percent ready.

Dawodu said the government’s inspection of the stadium, which is being reconstructed to improve the standard of sports facilities in Lagos, would soon host major sporting activities.

He added that the refurbishment of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, which is also on-going, would be completed according to schedule.

The commissioner revealed that plans were also on to upgrade the Rowe park Sports Centre Yaba, adding, “The Mobolaji Johnson Stadium (Onikan Stadium) will be completed by the end of February and contractors will hand over the site to us.

“Renovation works are still on going at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, which will continue as we have lots of activities lined up for the year,” he said.

Dawodu promised that the government would give sports the direction it deserves in 2020, adding it was part of the vision of Governor Sanwo-Olu to make Lagos State the hub for sports.

“To ensure that athletes are kept busy and in shape for optimal performance at major championships, both locally and internationally, arrangements are on to put in place quarterly competitions for the sports men and women in Lagos state.

“The lesser sports will benefit from the programme as it would avail athletes a platform to showcase their talents and be discovered.

“What we plan to do is to make sure each sport has at least one programme per quarter, football is already taking care of itself so we want to concentrate on other sports as well.

“All other associations have come up with events through the Lagos State Sports Commission so that athletes, officials and coaches will be actively engaged,” the commissioner added.

Dawodu also expressed satisfaction that Team Lagos qualified for all the team sports at the South West Zonal eliminations, which took place from January 22 to 23 ahead of the 20th National Sports Festival holding in March in Benin, Edo State.

Teams from five other states, including Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo, battled with Team Lagos for slots in sports such as football, basketball, cricket, handball, hockey, volleyball, beach volleyball, rugby and abula at the South West zonal elimination championship.

Agege Stadium, Teslim Balogun Stadium, National Stadium, Elegbata Sports Complex, Tafawa Balewa Square Cricket Oval and Rowe Park Sports Centre were the venues for the South West Zonal preliminaries.