The Truth About ABS FC's Status In Kwara Stadium

The claim that the Governor ejected ABS Football Club from the Kwara State Stadium Complex is false and evil. We hope to see the club issuing an official position on the matter for the public to know what truly went down.

Before then, here's the truth of the development they seek to twist:

First, the Club is a private business. It is not owned by the govt of Kwara State. So, like other private businesses, its use of public properties in the stadium must come at a cost just like other private businesses. This is the standard everywhere in the world.

However, since 2014 when the Club started using the choice facility built and managed with public funds, it has not paid a dime as rent to the state. In 2014 when it was to start using the facility, the order just came from above for the Sports Council and others hitherto using the place to vacate it -- for the use of a club privately owned by Senator Bukola Saraki. 

There where murmurs within the Sports Council about the impunity that such decision represented but nobody cared, anyway. There is no official record of any letter from the Ministry authorising the private football club to use that facility. Somebody just barked down the order! Whereas the Kwara United Fans Club and some other private shop owners (tenants) in the stadium complex are all paying for using the public facilities! 

For example, Gidado FC uses a shop in the complex as an office and they are paying for it.

Kwara' United Fans Club also pays for the space they use as office, Same for Emirate Youths Football Club.

Last year, the KWIRS, in its drive to eliminate waste and sanitise revenue collection drive, beamed its search light on the stadium complex and asked how much the Football Club had been paying. The answer was that it was not paying anything!!! Of course they were shocked at such impunity. They said that is not going to happen anymore. If Fans Club of the public-owned Football Club and other private concerns are paying for using public facilities, why should that of the ABS Club be different? A letter was written to them that this has to change. They initially valued its annual rent at over 300K but this was brought down after negotiations to around 180K annually. 

Ordinarily the KWIRS ought to collect the unpaid rent from when they started using the facility but it magnanimously said the club should start paying ONLY from Jan 2021. The Club said no; it would start paying from July 2021. The KWIRS and Sports Council kicked! So, the Council wrote the Club to vacate the facility if it wasn't going to abide by the payment agreement. 

How is this tantamount to the Governor ejecting the Club? Is it right for a private business to operate from public facilities managed with taxpayers' money without paying for same, even when other private businesses pay for same? 

That a private Club was "gifted" a public facility since 2014 without any due process is another evidence of the impunity that characterised the Saraki years in the state. It is this impunity they want to continue in the state unchecked. This thinking explains how choice public lands/properties were occupied by private persons without a dime paid to the public. An example is the Ile Arugbo land which was meant for the civil service secretariat but was taken over with impunity without a dime paid to the public coffers.

Copyright KWARA REPORTERS. All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from KWARA REPORTERS. For more info, Adverts or report call us on +2349064433505 or reach us at infokwarareporters@gmail.com