Asaba township stadium collapses, three feared dead

Three people are feared dead on Thursday November 10, 2022 after a multiple sports complex located within Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba, Delta State, collapsed.

The casualties according to eyewitnesses were construction workers at the site of the building.

The two-storey building is under construction in preparation for the 21st National Sports Festival (NSF) to be hosted at the stadium from November 28, 2022.

It was also gathered that a team of journalists including those that went to assess the level of damage were beaten up and bundled out of the stadium on the orders of the chairman, Delta State Sports Commission, Mr. Tonobok Okowa.

Mr. Okowa who doubles as Co-Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the festival tagged Asaba 2022, ordered his boys to confiscate the working tools of the journalists.

“Seize their gadgets and bundle them out of this place immediately,” he shouted.

When the boys were reluctant to carry out his orders, he shouted at them, “you are still looking at them, I said collect all their gadgets and bundle out of stadium”.

Immediately they pounced on the journalists with a sports pistol gun.

The collapsed stadium building was recently inspected by the Minister of Sports, Mr. Sunday Dare, who gave a pass mark, saying that the facilities were 80% ready for use.

However, some structural engineers expressed concerns over the speed at which the construction was going, doubting the integrity of the buildings under construction