Asaba Stadium Facility Collapses During African Senior Athletics Championship

A giant water tank at the Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba, Delta state has collapsed during the ongoing 21st African Senior Athletics Championships, tagged “Asaba 2018”.

The facility which collapsed left several vehicles and wall fence damaged.

The incident, BigPen Online learnt caused panic among the athletes and spectators as the game was going on.

Senior Delta Government officials were busy at the stadium when the incident happened, but an eyewitness said no one was injured in the collapse.

An official of the State Sports Commission, Asaba, who craved anonymity confirmed the incident saying it could be a fallout of shoddy job at the stadium to meet the August target.

“All construction carried out in the stadium were done in a hurry so it could be a result of the rush work. The collapsed water head tank was poorly done by the contractor I guess hence the collapse. You can even see that the stadium was not completed before the game started.”

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The event hosting was packaged by the governor for Asaba to add value to his development agenda but it was also a huge conduit pipe.

Unverified claims by sources have it that the governor had spent over N3.8 billion for the hosting of the championship, claiming that the event and stadium building was a conduit pipe.

“Everything concerning the championship was done poorly. From the construction to the hosting of the event were done in a hurry. Visit the restrooms at the stadium, there is no water to flush out the system and as a result the whole place is messed up”, the source said.

BigPen Online recalls that on Wednesday, the Minister of Sports and Youths Development, Mr. Solomon Dalung was booed by spectators while delivering President Muhammadu Buhari’s speech at the opening of the 21st African Senior Athletics Championships.