Barely two months after he inaugurated the Alaafin Olayiwola Adeyeni III Mini Stadium in Oyo Town to engage youths in sporting and recreational activities and reduce social vices, Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Sunday Dare, on Friday laid foundation for a-N492m Community Sport Centre at Ikoyi Ile, Oriire Local Government area of Ogbomoso, Oyo State.
According to the Minister while laying the foundation for the project, the expansive mini stadium which contains facilities including: tartan tracks, male and female hostels, ticketing boot/ gate house, grand stand, popular stand, public toilets, among other amenities, will be 60 per cent completed by the end of 2023.
Flanked by some officials of the Sports Ministry including the Director of Procurement, Mr. Segun Oke, Director of Facility Development Mr. Abolore Alanamu, and Prince Bukola Ladigbolu (representative of the NUOVA ALBA Integrated Limited company handling the construction), Dare said: “The sports complex which will follow the Alaafin Adeyemi III Mini Stadium inaugurated in October, has been budgeted for in 2023, and will start functioning partially as from April 2023 when the main pitch would have been ready for use.
“We hope that in 2023, we can bring it up to 60 per cent completion. Once the football pitch is complete, people can start using it. People can have access to any section of it. We won’t wait until everything is completed. We hope that either by the end of next year or April 2024, it will be 100 per cent ready. But we hope that by mid next year, some sections of it will be ready for utilization.”
In attendance at the ground-breaking ceremony were some of the traditional rulers who led the community to donate the 16 acres of land for the complex to the Federal Government.
Dare added:”The facilities we have here will be able to serve as a national camp to some of our teams (Team Nigeria), for football, basketball and the rest. Truly, the facilities located in Ikoyi Ile, Ogbomosoland, is a national project. It belongs to the entirety of Nigerians and Ikoyi Ile is just the custodian of that.”
