Sports Minister warns Ojez over swimming complex

THe Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Solomon Dalung has read the riot act to the contractor handling the rehabilitation of the swimming pool complex of the National Stadium in Lagos, Joseph Odebeatu, alias Ojex to complete the project before the end of the first quarter of the year or face the consequences.

Speaking during the inspection of the Olympic size swimming complex built in 1972 and used to host the All Africa Games a year after but left to rot away by successive administrations, who despite promises to revamp it, merely allocated funds shared by their cronies while the national edifice laid fallow, Dalung, clad in his trademark short sleeve and khaki trousers, with a striking red-beret to match, said the swimming pool complex was critical to the sports development plan of President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

He told the contractor of the project, who looked visibly shaken by the tone and facial expression of the minister that the government was going to follow through on ensuring that the project was delivered for use to Nigerian swimmers at the end of March.

*Dalong

Warning that he was going to hold Ojez to his word, a boiling Dalung said “I’m a very mathematical person, so if you tell me to come back after 100 years, I would go and surely return at the end of 100 years. With what you have told me today (yesterday), I will go and expect that this complex will be ready for swimmers to start diving in by March ending.

“If this project is not delivered by the end of the first quarter, we are going to follow you with everything that you don’t want. I don’t pay contractors who use the money we give them to change their number plates to more fanciful and customised ones or buy expensive gifts for their girlfriends to impress them”, added Dalung.

He was also unimpressed with the on-site work being done as he inspected, noting that it seemed more of a political show to impress him, adding that he expects the workers to continue working on site until the job was completed by the end of the first quarter.

“I can see people working everywhere, obviously because the minister’s coming, so they all came out to impress me. I understand this kind of behaviour but I don’t want to see this work as a political gimmick, so that when I leave here, the workers will leave. This work must continue and I will be monitoring it so that we can achieve what we set out for”, said Dalung.