The Cross River Government has begun the redeployment of facilities installed at the U.J. Esuene stadium, Calabar for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Nigeria in 2009.

Calabar was one of the eight centres used for matches in the tournament, held between October 24 and November 20.

The state Commissioner for Youths and Sports Development, Chief Raymond Obeten, confirmed the redeployment of the facilities.

Obeten said that power inverters and some computers installed at the media centre of the stadium had been moved to the ICT unit of the governor’s office.

He also said that a 1000-KVA generator used for the competition had been returned to Tinapa Business and Leisure Resort from where it was taken.

The five ambulances bought for the tournament have also been moved to some health facilities, while the CT SCAN and MRI machines are at the General Hospital, Calabar, the commissioner said.

He said the government intended to use the computers and inverters to improve operations at the training school of the ICT department.

“After satisfying the needs of the ICT department, we still have some computers and laptops left. We are working out a programme to make them useful to the people,” he said.

Obeten said that the redeployment of the facilities would enable the state to enjoy the benefits of hosting the tournament.

“We had said that hosting the championship would be beneficial to the state beyond the requirements of FIFA.

“It is more or less central to the growth of some sections of our social services infrastructure.

“Now that FIFA is gone, you can be sure that the facilities are available to serve our people. So, that is why the facilities are being redeployed,” he said.

Two days after the conclusion of matches at the centre on November 9, last year, some persons who claimed to be acting on orders removed some air conditioning units at the health centre of the stadium.

Those removing the items told some state LOC members and stadium workers that the orders came from the tournament’s coordinator of the health centre and the state commissioner for sports.

The commissioner then confirmed that the air conditioners were not on the list of items sent to the Calabar centre by the central LOC in Abuja.

He also said that before giving permission for the items to be removed from the stadium, he cleared with relevant authorities at the central LOC.