Former governor of Rivers state and present Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has announced that 60 Lagos-Ibadan railway project workers have contracted COVID-19.
The Minister who said the railway project would have been inaugurated in the first week of this month if not for the upsurge in the second COVID-19 wave, added that it was important to reschedule the proposed January 2021 inauguration date for the facility even though no life has been lost.
Amaechi said;
“First let us admit that over 60 of our staff, not Ministry of Transportation staff, but the staff working on the rail project, have been infected by COVID-19.
“Luckily nobody has died and I pray nobody will die, but you see the kind of sacrifice everybody is making to get the rail to function.
“There are people sacrificing their lives to get to that point. We are of the view when we made that decision that Nigerians will not say 2020 was a bad year.
“As far as we are concerned, we need to learn how to live with COVID-19 and I really want to congratulate those who achieved that feat.”
He further said the inauguration of the project would be dependent on when there is a reduction of new cases in the country.
Amaechi added;
“We were to inaugurate (the railway project) in the first week of January. We had to stop those doing minor completion work because of the rise in COVID-19 transmission.
“The timeline for inauguration will depend on COVID. If COVID stops today or reduces we will inaugurate the project.”
