Ganduje Shuts Down Kano Stadium Ahead Of Atiku’s Visit


The Kano State government on Monday ordered the immediate closure of the two major stadia in the state, barely six days to the proposed presidential campaign rally of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

DAILY NIGERIAN gathered that the PDP Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is expected to hold his rally at either Sani Abacha National Stadium or Kano Pillars stadium, Sabon Gari.

However, this newspaper gathered that the state government ordered the Kano State Sports Commission to immediately close the facility for renovation.

But, a source close to the state government told DAILY NIGERIAN that the shutdown was intended to frustrate the forthcoming campaign rally of the PDP candidate in the state.

According to the source who begged for his identity not to be revealed, the governor had received a confidential report that a lot of PDP supporters are being mobilised in their numbers from across the state.

He said: “There is every possibility that Atiku will pool more crowd than President Muhammadu Buhari did in the state during his campaign last week.

“People are already angry and tired of Ganduje.


“Also, the governor doesn’t want to send a bad signal to Abuja because the crowd will be massive.”

When contacted for comment, the spokesman of the sports commission, Abbati Sabo, said the directive was not intended to scuttle the campaign rally of the PDP presidential candidate.

He added that the renovation work was directed to have conducted ahead of the 2019-2020 Nigeria Premier League, NPL, season.

The spokesman explained that the government was advised to order for the renovation as the season had already commenced.


“As far as I am concerned, this directive doesn’t have a political undertone. The state government was advised to order for the renovation of the stadium ahead of the NPL season.

“The government had now heeded to the advice and ordered for the project in order to have smooth conduct of the league. As you can see, the facility is in need of repair and the government has now answered the call for its renovation,” he said.

It was also gathered that the proposed renovation work was billed to commence on February 4 and end on February 18.

The proposed general renovation works include the installation of the new score board, the running track and provision of sources for steady water supply to all parts of the stadium facility.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Army Holds Private Burial For 100 Soldiers Killed By Boko Haram

Image
The Nigerian Army has organised a private burial for over 100 officers and soldiers killed during terrorist attacks on Nigerian Army 157 Task Force Battalion last month, The PUNCH has learnt. Our correspondent was told by one of the widows of the officers that the burial would take place in Maiduguri on Friday. It was, however, learnt that the army wanted the event to be private so that the real number of slain soldiers will not be known. One of the widows who did not wish to be identified said, “I was invited for the burial of my husband with a few others this Friday in Maiduguri. “Sincerely, we don’t even know how many will be buried and the army is not giving us any information.” A colonel, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said the army decided to make the burial private in order to hide the true casualty figure. He said, “Gen Buratai said only 23 soldiers were killed in the attack. He also put the number of troops wounded in action at 31. How...
Read more

Rep Members Who Will Not Return To The House In 2019 (see List)

Image
Ahead of the 2019 general elections, at least 50 per cent of the 360 House of Representatives members of the eighth assembly will not return to the ninth assembly next year. A review by News men show that many of these lawmakers either lost the primary elections that were recently concluded or have moved to seek different elective positions. Below are some of the House members who are certainly not returning in 2019 for various reasons. ABIA In Abia, the member representing Bende federal constituency, Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje, is not returning to the house as she did not clinch the ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election. Unlike many of her colleagues, she did not seek to contest on a different platform. ADAMAWA Three out of the eight House of Representatives members from the state are not coming back. Out of the three, two lost the APC primary while the third contested for the Senate but failed to clinch the ticket. The two lawmakers who lost...
Read more