FCT Minster keeps mute as military ‘forcefully’ takes over Area 10 Sporting Ground

April 11 12:01 2019 by The Ajasa News Print This Article

By Martin Odiete

The Minister of the Federal Capital, Mohammed Bello seems totally to be unperturbed as the Nigeria military forcefully takes over the Area 10 Sporting Ground which they have converted to their parking space.

The Area 10 Sporting Ground is the only major sporting complex of the Federal Capital territory where Athletes train ahead of their participation at major tournaments. The center also serves as a source of generating revenue for the sports department as events like Trade Fair and other activities takes place there.

But the Nigeria military which office is located adjacent to the Sports Center saw the place as a comfortable and spacious place for their personals to park their cars sought the permission of the then Director of Sports to allow them use the space on a temporary note. The Director obliged them by given them a provisional approval pending when they would be able to get a permanent place.

This was how the relationship between the Sports Department of the Federal Capital Territory and the Nigeria Army began. But gradually the volume of vehicle parked on the ground by the military personnel began to affect the activities of the Sports Department which then resulted to asking them to leave, but when the military refused the Sports department had no other option but to lock them out.

In sharp reaction by that the military who were in desperate need of a space for their personnel to park their vehicles forcefully moved over to the other wing of the Sporting center, stationing their men on the gate to chase off any person considered to be an intruder. The matter got so bad to the extent that the military even refused entry those who had paid for the space to hold their trade fair.

Every efforts by the sports department through the office of the Social Development to make the military see reasons that the ground belongs to them has fallen on deaf ear.

Our investigation revealed that as a way of solving the matter diplomatically, the issue was reported to the FCT minister, Mohammed Bello who surprisingly is not showing any concern about it and has so far done nothing about it, an unfortunate situation that may lead to the final takeover of the ground by the military, and should that happen, sports development in the FCT will greatly be affected.