Liberia: Burglary at SKD Sports Complex

MONROVIA – Officials of the Chinese company responsible for the repair and maintenance of Liberia’s premier World-Class multi-functional sports facility, Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex, have complained about burglaries in the building, in spite of huge security presence in the premises.

By Samuel G. Dweh/freelance journalist ((+231) 886-618-906/776-583-266; [email protected])

“It happened on December 7, 2018.  “The unknown persons took away cables,” the Company’s Project Manager, Liu Feng, disclosed to journalists December 14, 2018 at the Samuel Kanyon Doe (SKD) Sports Complex, where the Company’s Head Office is a Chinese national. He spoke through a female official translator, Wang Jing. 

The name of the company is Hebei Construction Group Company, Limited, a State-owned.

According to the Company’s spokespersons, the burglary happened in the VIP section of the facility, which the Company’s management thought was the most secured place to keep the company’s equipment.

The Chinese said the burglary happened when the Stadium’s premises was being protected by twenty security guards from three private security firms, hired by the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Youth & Sports.

The Project Manager’s disclosure was part of his narratives to the journalists on his Company’s successes and challenges in Liberia, since it arrived into Liberia on May 14, 2014. The media people were on a general project called “Chinese Enterprises and China-Aided Projects in Liberia”.

Covering a land-space measuring 156,000 square kilometers, the SKD Sports Complex was built and delivered by the Government of the People’s Republic of China to the Government of Liberia during the presidency of Samuel Kanyon Doe, Liberia’s 18^th Head of State.

Most part of the Complex was destroyed during Liberia’s civil war, but repaired by a Chinese construction company called Hunan Construction Group Company, Limited, in 2006.

“On July 8, 2015, the outbreak of Ebola disrupted our operations, and we paused briefly,” Mr. Feng said explained further.

Hebei resumed operations on the eighth day of July, 2015, and completed the project on March 23, 2017, followed by a turn-over to the Ministry of Youth & Sports on the 22^nd day of March.

Hebei Construction Company’s repair and maintenance service on SKD Sports Complex is on the China-Liberia Friendship, Project Manager Liu Feng reminded his guests from the Liberian media.

“As you are aware, this Friendship was strengthened further during the meeting of Liberia’s President George Weah and our President, Xi Jingping at the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation” meeting held in Beijing,” he emphasized.

The Chinese government had shouldered the total cost for the repair and maintenance, pumping in RMD82m (equivalent of USD12m), said the Project Manager.

But the Stadium’s Basketball Court isn’t in the repair-and-maintenance contract signed by Beijing and Monrovia, Mr. Feng clarified.

The workforce on the SKD project—under a Chinese title, “Technical Team of China-Aided SKD Sports Complex Project”—is fifty persons.

“Twenty-two Chinese, twenty-eight Liberians,” the Project Manager disclosed.

Hebei Construction Company said it is exerting its creative strengths and energies into the Liberian premier sports facility project, “because the SKD Sports Complex is Liberia’s pride for international sports events and presidential inauguration,” said Mr. Feng, responding to a journalist’s question: “Why the Company is “is so passionate about SKD?” 

Portions of the company’s profile released to journalists stated: “This technical assistance project will…ensure the long-term…friendship between China and Liberia and promote the traditional friendship of the two peoples.”