The Federal Government on Thursday inaugurated an investigative committee to unravel the circumstances leading to the vandalization of the Moshood Abiola Stadium and recommend measures to forestall recurrence.

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare while inaugurating the committee led by DIG Sanni Mohammed (Retd) noted that while the failure of Nigeria to qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup is not only regrettable but also left millions of football loving Nigerians unhappy and angry, making them to ask for changes, it is not enough to condone the acts of vandalism and destruction of public infrastructure like the Moshood Abiola Stadium, built with tax payers money and the benevolence of private individuals.

“The Federal Government will not sit by and allow individuals, no matter their ages to just wilfully damage and destroy Federal Government Infrastructure especially a public infrastructure like the Moshood Abiola National Stadium. Therefore, this afternoon, I want to inaugurate this committee on the acts of vandalism and destruction of the Stadium. This committee will have two weeks to conclude its assignment and submit its report.

“It is an investigative committee and they will be given necessary access to the stadium, they will be provided with the CCTV footage, they will have access to every relevant person connected with the football match and also the Ministry, Nigeria Football Federation(NFF)and other relevant agencies,” the Minister added.

The terms of reference of the Committee include unraveling the remote and immediate causes of the incident; determine the extent of the destruction; investigate the security arrangement and the role of security generally; identify the culprits; identify victims where we have them; make recommendations on how to prevent future occurrence, not just for the Moshood Abiola Stadium but all stadia across the country in terms of crowd control after the games, amongst others.

In his response, the Chairman of the Committee, DIG Mohammed(Retd)thanked the Minister for finding members of the committee worthy of the national assignment, promising they will discharge their responsibilities without fear or favour, and assist the nation to prevent a recurrence of the unfortunate incident.

Other members of the investigative committee are Dr Henry Nzekwu(vice chairman), Commodore Omatseye Nesiama(Retd), Alhaji Abba Yola, Dr Simon Ebhojiaye, Mrs Tayo Oreweme, Mr Mitchell Obi, a representative of the Director General of the Department of State Security(DSS) and Mr Olumide Bamiduro, who will be the secretary.

The committee has two weeks to turn in their report.

The technical director of Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, Sunday Adeleye says the most important thing at the moment is to put in place a proper preparation for the Nigerian Athletes ahead of the Tokyo Olympic games.

Sunday Adeleye noted that despite the hiccups and hindrance portraying the AFN in bad light, the body will still do enough to ensure that the country’s interest comes first.

When quizzed about the controversy rocking AFN as regards faction, Sunday Adeleye said “Well, so far so good, we don’t know what the faction is all about, but we as a federation we are working hard and our team is ready, we are making sure that athletes are getting set for the event”.

“We are doing what we need to do as a federation.We can not pretend as if there is no problem, we keep talking about interference, we’ve had several issues in the court and judgements have been given in our favour that Ibrahim Shehu Gusau remain the substansive president of the AFN and Sunday Adeleye also it’s technical director”.

The AFN Technical director noted that the federation has done enough to put the house in order and confirmed that they have tried severally to meet with the Honourable Sports Minister.

“We have tried severally to meet with the Honourable Sports Minister but our efforts have proved abortive”.

He frowned at the ministry’s manner of disrespecting the decision of the court and flout its orders, he described it as disheartening.

He said he’s hoping that the crisis do not affect the team Nigeria irrespective of the distractions.