Deputy Director-General of the National Sports Authority (NSA) Abdul Bawah Majeed has shot down claims that the Authority rented out the Borteyman Sports Complex to a church service but rather to a tour for a group of university students.
He said this in an exclusive interview with Citi Sports in the wake of a viral video online capturing a group of people praying in one of the halls at the Borteyman Sports Complex. (Click highlighted text to read full story)
Reaction to the video was sharply and heavily criticized by individuals who fear the new edifice that was built to host the African Games would become the latest edifice to suffer from poor maintenance culture that is rife in Ghana.
“Immediately after the African Games, we got a letter from people that they wanted to organize a tour at the Borteyman facility. They said that they were going to have a talk with Deputy Minister (Sports) who was going to give them a talk on leadership so I allowed them the use of the multi-purpose center.”
“I came back and I went inside the place and I saw that it was branded with church material. I didn’t know that it was a church program so later on I saw on social media that the SRC of the University of Ghana actually wrote to apologize publicly to the Muslim community who were also part of the program because it turned out to be like a church program instead of a conversation about leadership.”
“After the African Games, a number of people have written to us that they want to use it for their church service and we have refused so this was an exceptional case. There a lot of letters on our file that people want to use particularly the dome for their weekly church service and we didn’t agree because the place was not built for church service.”
“That is the whole truth about the matter. It was not given to anybody for church services. The organizer deceived the Authority and even the participants and that was the basis upon which some of them complained and they had to issue a public apology to that effect.”
In recent years, the likes of the Alhaji Aliu Mahama Stadium and Essipong Stadium have fallen prey to poor maintenance culture.