By Henry Ibya, Makurdi
Benue State Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Creativity, Isaac Imojime, has announced significant progress in the renovation of the McCarthy Stadium, signaling a potential return of Lobi Stars FC to their home ground.
Speaking to members of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria,SWAN,after inspecting work at the stadium on Tuesday in Makurdi, Imojime revealed that arrangements are underway to deploy payloaders and tippers to begin sand filling of the pit at the stadium.
“We are making arrangements to get payloaders and tippers to come and commence filling of sands in the pit at the McCarthy stadium,” he said.
Imojime explained that the Nigeria National League,NNL,had given conditions for Lobi Stars FC’s return to Makurdi, citing the pit as a major hazard despite the stadium’s good pitch.
“The NNL gave us conditions for which if met, Lobi will return to Makurdi, and begin playing their matches. They said we have a good pitch but the pit constitutes a lot of hazards,” he stated.
The commissioner outlined plans for a phased renovation approach, involving sand filling and strategic compartmentalization of the stadium to allow construction work and spectator activities to proceed simultaneously.
“This will enable us to begin renovation of the stadium holistically in piece meal where construction will be going on and spectators will at the same time too be on the other side of stadium, watching matches conveniently without hitches”, he said, adding that to facilitate the approach, the players’ camp will be converted into a temporary spectator stand.
He further explained that the camp where the players live will be converted to a stand for spectators whereby the players camp will still be on the ground while spectators will be sitting up to watch football matches,expressing confidence that the sand filling exercise will take only three days, after which the stadium will be demarcated into compartments to enhance its appearance.
“With this development, we will bring our team back to Makurdi. Lobi will be playing their next away NNL match on Thursday, this week in Kano, and we are hoping that their next home NNL match will be played at the McCarthy stadium,” Imojime expressed the believe.
He thanked Benue fans for their patience, assuring them that Lobi Stars FC will return home soon, insisting that Playing home matches away in Lafia does not give him the indepth fulfilment, and he would not compare the comfort he could get in Lafia to that which he would get at home in Makurdi.
