http://www.thepointng.com/4-years-after-completion-abandoned-multi-million-naira-nff-building-stirs-hot-controversy/

Federation shops for N175.9m to renovate unused structure
Stakeholders call for probe; say it’s monumental corruption
We’re in no hurry to occupy building – NFF
Almost four years after it was completed and commissioned, the Sunday Dankaro House, a N350 million edifice built for the Nigerian Football Federation at the Abuja National Stadium, stands abandoned.

The facility, which is located at the Goal Project centre of the stadium and was built with funds raised from the private sector by a presidential task force, has now become “home to reptiles and bats,” according to findings by our correspondents.

The situation has generated heated controversy among stakeholders, who have called on the Federal Government to probe the refusal of the NFF to occupy the building, noting that it was important for Government to curb the antics of those who have perfected the art of wasting public resources in a bid to feather their own nests.

During a visit to the abandoned office, midweek, a stakeholder, who spoke with our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, corroborated The Point’s findings, as he bemoaned the present state of the facility.

He said, “You can see that the structure is now gradually losing some of its glass boards, which once gave the complex some uniquenessin outlook. As we speak, it has lost all the removables affixed before; they are gradually making a carcass of this edifice.

“Except that the gate is padlocked, there is nothing to show that NFF remembers that it has this building. It has now become a home for reptiles and bats.”

The NFF had, for long, been holed up in its Glass House office in Zone 7, Wuse, Abuja, while it keeps picking and postponing at will, several possible dates of relocation to the property.

This is besides allegations making the rounds that some NFF members are profiting from the continued occupation of the Glass House as against moving to the Federation’s permanent and more befitting office.

In the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Nigeria’s late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua had inaugurated a Presidential Task Force committee to raise funds for the country’s participation at the competition. Chaired by former Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, other members of the PTF committee were Alhaji Abba Yola, Dr. Patrick Ekeji; Segun Odegbami, John Masteroudes, former Presidential Spokeperson, Olusegun Adeniyi; Austin Jay-Jay Okocha, Larry Izamoje, Col Abdulmumini Aminu (retd), John Fashanu and Ambassador Buba Ahmed, among others.

The then President of the Nigerian Football Federation, Mallam Sani Lulu, was also appointed to represent the body before he was replaced by Aminu Maigari, his successor.

The committee swung into action, courted the private sector and succeeded in raising funds to the tune of N1billion. With the committee’s support and funding, Nigeria qualified for the tournament.

Thereafter, it assisted the NFF in its preparations for and participation in the January 2010 African Cup of Nations tournament in Angola.

Our correspondent gathered that part of the funds were deployed in hiring a foreign technical manager to prosecute the World Cup as well as in increasing the match bonus for Super Eagles players by 100 per cent throughout the entire period. However, following the conclusion of the World Cup in South Africa in July 2010, the committee still had about N350 million remaining in its account.


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