SUNDAY Dare, the Minister of Youth and Sports, has issued a 25- day ultimatum to illegal occupants of Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja to vacate the facilities for proper rehabilitation to commence.

In a press statement published on the ministry’s website on Monday, the Minister had during an inspection tour of the stadium on Saturday told the residents to vacate the premises.

He said the ultimatum became necessary as the ministry was ready to embark on serious maintenance and rehabilitation of the national sports edifice.

During the inspection, the Minister visited the stadium’s generator house, diesel room, conjunction panel room. Others were Outdoor Hall of Fame, Water Fountain, Family Picnic slop, designated entrance to the hall of fame strip and 4,000 space car park.

He was joined on the tour by Gabriel Aduda, Permanent Secretary of the ministry and stadium renovation partners from the Federal Capital Territory Authority (FCDA).

In November, the Minister announced that Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man was  set to renovate the main bowl of the  stadium in Abuja.

Dare said the renovation would include just the football pitch, light and scoreboard at the stadium.

According to him, work would begin in the next two weeks. “Yes, Abuja is coming back up,” he had said.

But the renovation has not been done since. A sports ministry quoted the Minister  as saying that the Dangote Group would still fulfill its promise of renovating the stadium’s main bowl and the scoreboard.

Formerly known as National Stadium, Abuja, the stadium was constructed to host the 8th All Africa Games which took place in October 2003.

The The Federal Government of Nigeria approved the contract for the construction of the National Stadium complex and Games Village on July 18, 2000. It has 60,491 crowd capacity.

On 12 June 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari announced the change of the name of the National Stadium, Abuja to Moshood Abiola National Stadium.

President Buhari made this pronouncement during his speech at the Democracy Day celebration on at the Eagle Square, Abuja.