National Stadium, a national disgrace.

Main bowl of Abuja National Stadium in 2012

Not less than five refuse heaps have been spotted at different locations within the National Stadium complex, Lagos, leaving the sport city environment filthy and unhealthy for users of the facility.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that some of the heaps of refuse were rather haphazardly located at the weightlifting gymnasium, opposite the mechanic workshop, behind the main bowl and by the legacy pitch, as well as the boxing gymnasium/secretariat.

Some of the athletes and coaches, who used the environment for training, decried the awful sight.

They told NAN that the present state of the complex was not good enough and could pose health hazards to users of the stadium.

Many people troop to the facility in the evenings, but mainly at weekends, to engage in jogging and other forms of exercises.

A good number of them also patronise many of the drinking and relaxation joints within the complex on a daily basis. All these people generate wastes at the stadium.

Okechukwu Elendu, who claimed to use the facility for exercises, said the management ought to be more responsive in ensuring the cleanliness of the environment. Elendu condemned the act of abandoning the heaps of refuse at strategic places within the complex, describing it as an eyesore.

“The stadium management is trying but they must do more in the area of refuse dumps; we are not supposed to see or smell wastes, it’s dangerous to health,” he added.

Ijeoma Iherobiem, an athlete, said that the cleaners always come around in the morning hours to clean up the environment and end up soliciting for trash bins to evacuate the wastes.

Iherobiem said the place was usually messed up as a result of a lack of bins.

“I know they used to have a tractor that they used in evacuating wastes to their dump sites. The vehicles must have broken down.

“That is why we now see wastes in recent times; the cleaners now use wheel barrows to move huge wastes to the dump sites. The barrows are inadequate to cope with the amount of waste being generated daily.”

Meanwhile, Abolore Alanamu, the National Stadium manager, in a reaction, said that the management was committed to ensuring a healthy environment for users of the facility.

Alanamu, however, acknowledged that the tractors used by the cleaners to dispose waste were no longer in use as the engines had since packed up.