The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare has revealed that the MKO Abiola National Stadium is ready to be used as an isolation center following the outbreak of the COVID-19 in the country.
He stated this yesterday during an inspection tour of the facilities at the stadium.
It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday approved the use of the national stadia in Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja and Kaduna for use as isolation centers.
“Our stadium facilities will be available on a need basis as we try to stop COVID-19 in its tracks. Stadium complexes have several facilities. The velodrome is very airy and can serve several purposes. The Stadium is ready to be used as distribution centers for medical supplies and other support materials.
“In Brazil, we have seven football clubs surrendering their stadiums. Barcelona have also donated their stadium. In Florida, we have seen one of the biggest stadium, Hard Rock stadium being donated for community testing. These are similar stadiums as we have in this country.
“We have 57 executive suites here, you can see how they are, self-contained, with toilets there, and we think this facility belongs to this country and that this facility is available if the need arises.
He further stated that VIP suites are opened to all Nigerians just as the open fields of the Stadiums might be needed for distribution of medical supplies and as testing centres to allow for social distancing.
“Beginning this weekend, we will start fumigating and cleaning them for any Nigerian who needs them as determined by the health authorities,” he said.
The Minister maintained that Sports has been the hardest hit by the Coronavirus but has to also be actively involved in stopping the pandemic.
“The sports sector has been one of the hardest hits where we called off the National Sports Festival, the Olympics Games which was also called off for the first time in history during peace time.
“We want to provide support, to make available facilities to be part of this massive army that stop the pandemic from spreading,” he said.
