Lagosians Should Expect A World-Class Onikan Stadium – Tandoh

TAIWO ADELU

The ongoing reconstruction of Onikan Stadium on Lagos Island when completed will offer Lagosians a world-class sports and entertainment arena never seen in Nigeria.

Executive Chairman of Lagos State Sports Commission, Dr. Kweku Tandoh, while revealing how the new Onikan Stadium will look like in an interview with P.M.EXPRESS said that the new-look Onikan Stadium will be the first of its kind in Nigeria as the stadium will be used to host football matches and big entertainment shows to promote socio-cultural and tourism heritage of Lagos State to the world.

He disclosed that the new stadium is going to be a multi-purpose entertainment complex.

“It will be a 5,100 seat capacity when we are using it for football matches, while it will contain about 8,000 people when it is being used for entertainment shows.

“The stadium is being built to FIFA specifications, while the complex as a whole is being packaged for entertainment and tourism events. We will have corporate boxes which companies will have the opportunity to buy and showcase their products. There will also be LED boards for advertisement. These will generate a lot of revenue for us to cater for the maintenance and other running of the complex” he said.

Tandoh further disclosed that the new-look Onikan Stadium will not be for the exclusive use of Lagos State Sports Commission alone as it will be under inter-agencies usage due to the broad utility that the stadium will now be serving.

The contractor handling the reconstruction of the stadium, Slavabogu Nigeria Limited said that the company is working round the clock to deliver the stadium by January, 2019. The Managing Director, Mr. Zerekiya Oktem, said that all other things being equal the new-look Onikan Stadium will be ready on schedule.

He said, “Work is going on steadily and we are on course to deliver a world-class stadium to the Lagos State Government”.

He recalled how the design of the stadium already prepared by the contractor was changed to reflect Governor Ambode’s vision for the stadium.

“Around November last year, we had to change the design of the stadium to meet up with the vision the Governor had for the stadium to be a multi-purpose arena not only for sports. We planned to accommodate a museum inside the stadium to celebrate the history of Onikan Stadium, We discovered that this stadium had a long and rich history and we believed a museum within the complex would add value to the purpose of reconstructing the Onikan Stadium,” Oktem said.