15 Chinese medical team in Nigeria to build, equip isolation centres, not medical treatment – Aregbesola, Interior Minister

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, at the Presidential Task Force on coronavirus briefing in Abuja on Tuesday said the 15 Chinese experts came into Nigeria on the bill of China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) to assist in building and equipping isolation centres.

Aregbesola had explained: “Indeed, 15 Chinese nationals came into Nigeria on 8th of April. They are here on the bill of the CCECC, a Chinese company doing some works for us in Nigeria in conjunction with some Nigerian companies they agreed to support us in the effort to respond to the pandemic.

“At Idu isolation centre in Abuja, they participated in retrofitting and equipping the isolation centre. They equally worked on the Dome project, that was handled by the NNPC Construction in conjunction with ThisDay.

“So, those are the locations in which they came to work. Both in retrofitting the Iju facility and installing critical essential medical equipment.”

The Interior Minister said the Chinese experts came into Nigeria on a 30-day visa issued in Beijing and they are still in the country because there is a restriction on travel occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehinare, had on Thursday last week resisted journalists from asking him about the whereabouts of the Chinese experts but the House of Representatives later took him on same issue.

The health minister had said at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing that the medical personnel “are not guests of the Federal Government but CCECC, a construction company.”