The Chief Executive Officer of Monimichelle Sports, Ebi Egbe, whose contract for constructing the FIFA-funded mini stadium in Ugborodo, Delta State, was terminated by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), has said he could complete the project if paid the $700,000 balance by the federation, The PUNCH reports.
The Ugborodo stadium is the twin project of the mini stadium in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State, and both were funded under the FIFA Forward 2.0 Programme – a project that supports football development in each of FIFA’s member associations.
Each stadium is estimated to be worth about $1.2 million, and while the project in Birnin Kebbi has been in use for about two years, the Ugborodo stadium has been abandoned for as many years.
General Secretary of the NFF, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, had told The PUNCH that the body terminated Monimichelle’s contract for failing to return to the site within the stipulated time, after receiving about $500,000 in advance payment.
Although the contractor has sued the NFF for terminating his contract, he has also claimed that significant progress has been made on the site, and he could finish the project with the $700,000 balance.
‘The impression that we didn’t do anything is totally wrong. The NFF actually stopped funding that project about three years ago. The project was actually built to fail because the drawing they gave us showed that we were building on a mainland, but they took us to a land that is less than one metre from a river without shoreline protection and asked us to move it 100 million inward towards line and that took us to a hill that has 20 per cent slope’, Egbe said in a interview with Brilla.
‘Where is the $7000,000 balance due to Monimichelle? Give me that money, and I will finish the project for Nigerians. If they have the money and put it on the table, I will finish it. But if I am doing A and you are asking me for B, you have to pay for B. The job I have done, anyone with a surveyor can quantify it, I have done more than $500,000, and I have equipment rotting away there’, he said.
After terminating the contract, the NFF president, Ibrahim Gusau, also said the project has not been re-awarded to another contractor.
When asked about the chances of continuing the project, Sanusi said it was between the NFF and FIFA.
‘That is an issue that is between us and FIFA’, the NFF General Secretary told The PUNCH.
