Amaechi: COVID-19 delaying Buhari inauguration of Lagos-Ibadan rail

• Minister threatens to stop train operations

Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has said that the inauguration of the Lagos-Ibadan rail line has been put on hold due to the upsurge in COVID-19 cases in the country.

He has threatened to shut down the Lagos-Ibadan and the Abuja-Kaduna train services if any case of the pandemic is detected among passengers.

Amaechi, who disclosed these in Abuja, also said that over 60 workers on project site had been infected by COVID-19 while trying to complete the project.

President Buhari was expected to formally inaugurate the 156km standard gauge rail line early this month to kick-start its full operation as stated by the minister during his last inspection of the project last month.

He added that the Lagos-Ibadan railway project to be completed this month would be inaugurated virtually by President Buhari.

Amaechi also spoke on the some construction workers that contracted COVID-19 in course of working on the Lagos-Ibadan railway project.

“First, let us admit that over 60 of our staff, not ministry of transport 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.

“They are people sacrificing their lives to get to that point, we are of the view when we made that decision that Nigeria will not say 2020 was a bad year, so remove one year and add another year to Buhari administration.

“As far as we are concerned, we need to learn how to live with COVID-19, I really want to congratulate those that achieved that feat, we were to inaugurate first week in January. We had to stop those doing minor completion because of the rise in COVID-19 transmission.

“The timeline for inauguration will depend on COVID-19. If COVID-19 stops today or reduces, we will commission the project.”

Amaechi further stated that the train services on all routes might stop if passengers failed not adhere to the COVID-19 protocol.

“We will allow the train to run but if we see that we are conveying passengers who have COVID-19 from Lagos to Ibadan, we will stop it; just like we are threatening to stop Kaduna-Abuja, if people don’t comply with the COVID-19 protocol.”

According to him, the Abuja-Kaduna route conveys about 4,000 passengers daily, adding that if anyone transmitted COVID-19 onboard, it would be a serious challenge.

The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) had in December 2020 commenced operations of the 156km Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail line.

Speaking on a live television programme, Amaechi said train passengers must comply with all COVID-19 protocols during their trip.

“If we see that we are conveying passengers who have COVID-19 from Lagos to Ibadan and Ibadan to Lagos, we will stop it just like we are threatened to stop the one from Kaduna to Abuja if people don’t comply with the COVID-19 protocols.

“Don’t forget that on Kaduna-Abuja, we convey 4,000 passengers in a day. Imagine that about 20 per cent have COVID-19, they can transmit COVID-19 to the entire passengers. The rate of transmission will be high. The same is applicable to Lagos. Everybody must comply with the COVID-19 protocols, wear your masks till the end of the journey,” he said.