We know where the Chinese medical team is —Nigerian Govt

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, said on Tuesday the 15-member Chinese medical team came into Nigeria on the bill of the Chinese Civil Engineering and Construction Company (CCECC).

The minister, who disclosed this at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 media briefing in Abuja, said members of the Chinese medical team were still in the country.

The Managing Director of the CCECC Nigeria Limited, Mr. Michael Yigao, had said on Monday the Chinese medical experts are in the company’s care.

He also said the medical team is in Nigeria to share their expertise with their Nigerian counterparts.

And speaking on the issue on Tuesday, Aregbesola said: “Indeed, 15 Chinese nationals came into Nigeria on April 8, 2020 and from everything we have heard and said, they are here on the bill of CCECC, a Chinese company working in Nigeria, doing some work for us in several places. The CCECC in conjunction with some Nigerian companies agree to support us in the effort to respond to the pandemic. At Idu in Abuja, they participated in retrofitting and equipping the isolation there.

“They equally worked on the Dome project that was handled by the NNPC consortium in conjunction with Thisday. So, those were the locations in which they came to work.“They helped in retrofitting the two facilities and installing critical, essential and sensitive medical equipment. They came in 15 of them, on April 8.

READ ALSO: Doctors, nurses, other essential workers in Lagos barred from movement during curfew

“They came on a 30-day visa issued in Beijing. They are still here. I do not need to tell you why they are still here. They are still here not because they have not completed their job but because there is a restriction on travels in Nigeria occasioned by the protocol of COVID-19.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now