Revealed: 35 million USD Cape Coast Stadium left unguarded

In what is a shocking revelation, the New Cape Sports Stadium has been left with no security men at post since it was officially handed over to the National Sports Authority about a year ago.

The 15,000 capacity multi sports facility was commissioned in May 2016, after 3 years of construction by Chinese firm Jiang Xi International Corporation.

The edifice was set up at a cost of $35m by the China government as a grant to the country.

It has a 21-room hostel for accommodation, two separate halls for table tennis and boxing, a gym, two outdoor basketball courts, handball and tennis courts, a football pitch and an 8-lane standard tartan track.

Despite all these been available at the facility, not one security personnel, has been officially assigned to guard the property of the state.

This was disclosed to EIB Network’s Takoradi-based Empire FM in an exclusive interview with the Central Regional Director of Sports, Kweku Abedu Wilson.

He noted that due to an embargo placed on employing staff for the National Sports Authority and other government bodies since 2010, his outfit has struggled to get a single security man at post to guard the facility.

He lamented: “to be honest with you, I wish I can employ more people. Security wise, [we have] no [staff here at the stadium]. People walk in and do whatever they want.”

He added that several efforts made to get the situation dealt with by the Sports Ministry then has proved futile.

“I’ve written for special arrangements to cater for this but my letters were returned last year.

“I wrote for at least four security men – two in the night, two in the day, my letters were returned to me,” he bemoaned.

Despite the previous frustrations suffered, Mr Abedu Wilson is however optimistic that with a new government in power and a new sports minister appointed, the situation will be handled expediently.