Lobi Stars Football Club (FC), Makurdi, is likely to play its home matches at the McCarthy stadium, as they await the completion of work at the Aper Aku stadium.
The stadium which has 7,500 capacity McCarthy stadium, Makurdi, may be commissioned by the Benue State Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, on May 29, 2025.
Before now, Lobi Stars have been playing their home matches away from home. But with the completion of the McCarthy stadium which is billed to be completed sometime in May, 2025.
Recall that work on the Aper Aku stadium was stalled following demands by the contractors, Monimichelle, that the state government provide to the company additional funds before it resumes work on the stadium.
However, as of Tuesday, work on the pitch at the McCarthy stadium, which would serve as an alternate pitch for Lobi Stars, was nearing completion, as the contractors had almost completed the marking of the stadium with the white grass.
The Director Operations Technical, Pitch Perfect Construction company, Mohammed Sanusi who dropped the hint in a chat with newsmen at the stadium, explained that other construction work on the stadium would soon be completed even though they were yet to be paid a dime for the contract.
He explained that the company decided to take it upon itself to construct the stadium, with the hope that after the work, the State Government would pay them for work done at the stadium which is estimated to cost about N3.5 billion at the end of the day.
Sanusi, who observed that as Pitch Perfect Construction completes work on the pitch, the company expects to fast track work on the dressing room, the underground VIP lounge, the VIP and popular stands among others before 29th May, 2025.
Conducting newsmen round the stadium, Sanusi said, “The grass you have here; what you are standing on is 60mm. It is a grass that can withstand up to 10 years if there is proper maintenance and what is proper maintenance, you use what you call brushes and spreaders to maintain it.
“We did the envelope drainage system here. We have three types of systems. We have the straight line, envelope and the other type that goes vertical. So the nature of the soil in most cases determines the type of system to adopt.
“This pitch is about 100 for the length and then 68 for the width, which gives you a standard stadium that any match can be played on it.
“It means that Lobi Stars will have two options from which they can choose to play any match, depending on the capacity they decide to choose from. This stadium (McCarthy) is like the former Arsenal Ivory stadium, same size, same everything and it’s a stadium that can host any kind of match.
“We are going to have an underground VIP, where even the players coming to play away and the home team will use to come into the stadium with a mesh wire around it to protect the away team and that is FIFA standard. So we are following the rules set by CAF and FIFA for protecting players in constructing this stadium.”
Sanusi said, the company was hopeful that it would be paid by the time it completes work on the project, due to the passion Governor Alia has shown in the construction work at the facility.
He said, “What gave me hope, despite not being paid is the sincerity of the Governor. Three times I was here, the Governor was here and he asked me several questions and I realized that he has the passion to see the stadium work.
“He was even concerned why his team (Lobi Stars) was not winning its matches. He even came two weeks before the end of March, he removed his shoes and stepped on the grass to ascertain the texture.
“So in fact, it is the sincerity of the Governor and the commitment that I have seen that made us to put in all the efforts, without being given a dime because he has shown passion.
“If he hadn’t come here I would have thought it was someone else that was giving us false hope, but when I see the governor all these times, I now believe that it is the Governor because of his passion to ensure that the team plays its home matches in Makurdi.
“The challenge we are having is that we don’t have light in the night. If we had light in the night and chippings around here in Benue by now we would have been getting up to 90 percent completion of the whole work.
“Look at the pitch, it is 99 percent completed; all we need is to gum some places. The fibre goal posts are already in the country with the net and all. They are all in Abuja and soon as we do the land markings we will bring them in. And so far we have put in over N500 million for the work.
“So give or take and God willing we will have light to work with for the night shift; we have made the arrangements so that we can fast track to deliver the project by May 29th and the governor can even come and watch a match here and commission the project God willing”, he said confidently. End.
