The management of the National Arts Theatre has denied reports that the Federal Government has sold the facility located in the Surulere area of Lagos. The report that first broke online had suggested that a Federal Government delegation led by the Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke, had sold the theatre to some foreign investors. Part of the deal allegedly worth $40m was said to involve renovating the facility and converting the 30,000m2 of the existing space into various tourist and entertainment structures. But in a meeting with journalists in Lagos last Tuesday, Yusuf described the reports as untrue. According to him, a concession plan unfolded about two months ago is still very much intact. He said that following an advertisement in the media, in which the management of the theatre requested an expression of interest on the concession of the fallow land around the complex, a committee comprising the Federal Ministry of Works, Federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Lagos State Ministry of Infrastructure and Physical Planning and the National Theatre was set up by Duke.