Mgbolu assures on hitch-free festival

Mgbolu told nigeriasports.com Tuesday that the LOC has been operating within its limitations,while expressing optimism that the teething problems plaguing the festival would soon be ameliorated. "The budget that was approved for this competition, it it to take care of 11,000 athletes and officials excluding the media,"he revealed."If less than a billion could be used for this, the last All Africa Games we had just 6,000 athletes and officials,we know how much Nigeria committed to the project.

"I am not trying to draw comparison, I just want to let you know there has been a lean and conservative estimate.But we have been able to manage the resources at our disposal wth a view to ensuring Nigerians get the best out of the festival." Speaking on the protracted delay in making the media centre at the stadium functional for the use of journalists, Mgbolu stated that disagreement over unpaid contract fees between certain construction firms and the government had prevented the LOC from gaining access into the arena on time,and this had disrupted a lot of arrangements.

 He explained:"It's been the cardinal objective of the LOC to make sure that some of these facilities are functional during this festival.But you know quite alright that there is a limit to which we can go.This particular complex[the stadium] does not belong to the FCT,rather it's a property of the federal government and we needed one or two permissions. "Luckily enough the approval to go ahead and install those computers and reactivate the internet has been obtained.So invariably I can assure you that these things will start functioning as soon as possible."