The Sports Ministry has denied reports that the presidency has set up a Committee to see to the renovation of the Abuja National Stadium. In a press release made available to the media on Thursday, SA to the Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi, Julius Ogunro stated that there was no ounce of truth in the report. The statement read: "Our attention has been drawn to a news item in some newspapers that His Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan has appointed the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Honourable Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to head a committee to reposition Nigerian sports and “return its lost glory.” "We wish to state that there is no truth in that report and it is a clear misrepresentation of the comments and directives of Mr. President." The statement went on to enlighten that the president was only reiterating his directive at the Federal Executive Committtee (FEC) meeting earlier in in the day that a committee be set up to look into a report submitted by the sports minister on the deplorable state of sports facilities in the country. The statement continued: "This is the fact. The Honorable Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi at the Federal Executive Council Meeting of September 5th, 2012, made a presentation on the performance of Team Nigeria at the London 2012 Olympics, and outlined strategies for greater performance in the future. "One of the highlights of that presentation was that we now lack decent pitches where our footballers can have quality training. The Honourable Minister especially lamented about the deplorable state of the National Stadium in Abuja and the inadequacy of sports infrastructure across the country. "It was then that Mr. President directed that an ad-hoc committee, made up of the Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi; CME and Minister of Finance, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala; Minister of FCT, Bala Mohammed; Minister of National Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, and the Director-General of the National Sports Commission, Dr. Patrick Ekeji be set up to come up with strategies on the renovation and management of the National Stadium in Abuja. "Later that evening, at his visit to the Super Eagles who were training at the National Stadium, Abuja, the issue of poor infrastructure came up again, and Mr. President reiterated his earlier directive. It is obvious that it is this directive by Mr. President that was misreported by a section of the press as a ‘committee to reform Nigerian sports.’"
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