The Lagos Railway District Management has issued a statement saying the delay in the ongoing Lagos-Ibadan rail line project is due to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus, this according to the Lagos District Manager, Mr. Jerry Oche who said that the Nigerian government would not sacrifice the health of her citizens for any project.

Obinwannem news understands that the majority of the Chinese working with the CCECC went to China for the New Year celebration and had not returned before the outbreak of the disease which hit their country the most.

Oche said that if the Chinese were going to come back to Nigeria and continue the project, they must be certified Coronavirus free so as to protect the country.

The minister for transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, had earlier announced that the outbreak of the Coronavirus in China might stall the completion of the Lagos-Ibadan rail project which was supposed to be completed on or before April.

According to Amaechi, “the delay might not be unconnected to the fact that the bulk of the workforce handling the project was stuck in China, where the disease broke out and spread to other countries.

In the minister’s words “The simple question we should ask ourselves is what do we want? Do we want to be infected with the Coronavirus because we want to meet the time for the completion of the project?

“Or we prefer a situation where the Chinese take care of themselves and get over the epidemics before coming to complete the project so that we all be safe and healthy?

“The project we are talking about is for the living people not for the dead. If the Coronavirus should infect us, how do we handle that?” he said.

The project handled by the China Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation (CCECC), faces a huge threat due to the COVID- 19 which has become a global health challenge.

Nwada Ugochinyere Onyechere reporting, Obinwannem News