‘Enyimba Stadium Will Be Ready for Next Round of CAF League’

The contractor handling Enyimba International Stadium in Aba, Monimichelle, has assured fans of the club that the arena would be ready after the first round CAF Champions League hurdle against Vipers of Uganda.

Enyimba will this weekend host Vipers at theYakubu Gowon Stadium in Port Harcourt with their Aba fortress still undergoing renovation.

Monimichelle’s CEO, Ebi Egbe, said on Tuesday that with the job done so far, the stadium could be ready in one week once the needed materials are imported into the country.

“We have completed the stadium drainage and sub-base. All that is left is laying of the grass (natural geo-technology pitch) which is to be imported. As things stand now, the job is 90 per cent done and laying of the grass by a team of FIFA certified experts won’t take more than a week if the materials arrive the country as scheduled,”Egbe said.

Egbe commended the Abia State Government for the efforts it is making to complete the project in spite of the free fall of the Naira.

“When the contract was awarded to us in December, the exchange rate of the Naira to Euro was 275 to 1, but today the Naira has been weakened by almost double that rate. But the government is determined to complete the project. If the needed funds are made available then Enyimba will stage a return home as early as next month.”

Egbe who also spoke on the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos and the Abuja National Stadium said his outfit would be ready to fix the turfs of two stadia insisting that Monimichelle would do a good job of both pitches.

“The Sports Minister, Barrister Solomon Dalung, should ensure that the turfs of the two national stadiums in Lagos and Abuja are given to a stadium facility specialist to install, a specialist that would do a good job. The job we did at the Katsina Stadium and what we are doing here in Aba is what we want the authorities to see as the benchmark. “