The site for the much anticipated multi-million-dollar Olympics stadium conceived under former President John Agyekum Kufuor’s administration to train young athletics and footballers in the country at Amasaman in the Greater Accra Region has been overgrown by weeds.
The yet to be completed stadium has also been declared as a no-go area in the evening by hardened criminals and wee smokers who seize the location to inflict terror on the residents by robbing them at knife and gun point.
The Olympic sports stadium initiated by the state with initial support of $350,000 from an affiliate of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been abandoned
The large tract of land which is 59.96 hectares (the size of about three football fields) acquired by the government when the OlympAfrica Project, a charity organisation affiliated to the IOC, decided on a single largest investment of $350,000 grant to support Ghana in its sport infrastructure development programme.
The project, which began in the 2000s has only seen the construction of a wall, building of access roads around the site and grading of the area which was to be used as sports village.
Checks by the Republic Press (RP) revealed that because the site serves as the shortest link route from Amasaman to Afiaman residents have reduced the land to a place of convenience, dumping site and a thoroughfare whiles others have converted some of the ticketing booths of the yet to be completed stadium into a sleeping rooms.
The paper’s last visit to the place on Friday, July 23, 2021, revealed that the abandoned Olympic stadium is a safe haven for criminals as Mr Kwaku Ansah, a resident of Afiaman said, there has been countless robbery cases in the area.
He said the recent incident took place last week Wednesday when two young ladies accessing the road from Amasaman to Afiaman were robbed with one being stabbed in the chest.
Mr Ansah said few weeks ago, there was a similar incident where a nursing mother returning home was robbed of her bag containing an imported medicine from Canada to treat her sick baby.
Background history
On November 8, 2013, the then President of Ghana’s Olympic Committee (GOC), Professor Francis Dodoo, said officials of the OlympAfrica Project became disappointed when they first visited the project.
He said officials of the OlympAfrica Project were unhappy with the Amasaman project, because it did not conform to standards set for projects supported by them.
“Apart from their doubts about the use of their funds on the project, the team observed that the standard of the OlympAfrica Project to make its initiative easily accessible to all in a community had been compromised by the high walls built around the Amasaman project,” he stated.
Prof. Dodoo said the team from the charity organisation proposed three options to the GOC to consider before it would continue to support the Amasaman project.
The first was that the Amasaman project land should be sold and another acquired for the GOC to invest to the tune of $350,000 before OlympAfrica Project would provide additional funds towards the project.
The second was for the GOC to acquire another land and invest the amount given by OlympAfrica, before it comes in with further support, while the third was for the GOC to refund the money given the OlymAfrica for the project.
Facilities
When the land was acquired, it was walled, with the provision of ticketing booths on all sides.
Service roads were constructed, with the provision of electricity and other utility infrastructure for the stadium and the sports village, where athletes could be accommodated, and offices built to facilitate sports administration.
Current situation
When RP visited the site last weekend, it was observed that part of the land has been overgrown by weeds with some local footballers using the middle of the stadium for a makeshift football field.
The place has also turn into a dumping site as some unscrupulous persons have turned the ticketing booth into their sleeping place.
Snipers of information picked at the projects site by the Republic Press indicates that the place set aside to build the sports village, where athletes could be accommodated, and offices to facilitate sports administration is now being use for the Amasaman affordable housing project which is expected to produce 6,500 homes at the value of over $5 billion.
This development has angered the chiefs and people of Amasaman and are waiting for the commencement of the housing project to vent their spleen on authorities.
Attempts to get some answers from the Sports Ministry through several calls proved futile as the chiefs of both Amasaman and Pokuase are calling on the government to revert back the land to the traditional authority if they realise they cannot continue the stadium project.
