Why work was suspended on Enugu airport, by minister

The Federal Government explained yesterday that it was forced to suspend ongoing reconstruction work at the Akanu Ibiam International airport, Enugu due to the downing of tools by the contractors over the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, who made a quick stopover at the facility on learning that workers had abandoned site, said: “In view of the workers that have downed their tools, we will have to suspend this project till after the COVID-19 which I hope will be within the next three weeks and once we are back to site, we will deliver the project within 15 days. Please, the people of this region should bear with us.”

He regretted that the workers could take the decision after government had “virtually provided all they needed to ensure the delivery of the project before Easter this year”, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s efforts had been complemented by governors of the Southeast zone, who held meetings with the contractors to encourage continuity.
Sirika stated that with the level of work done so far, they needed about seven days to deliver the project, including reconstruction of the runways, perimeter fencing and other rehabilitation works at the airport to bring it to international standard.

He stressed that the decision to abandon site, though painful, was to save lives.His words: “We are sad to announce today (yesterday) that because the workers who ought to be on site have to close down shop to go back to their families because of the COVID-19, we will no longer continue. We had planned to surmount this problem; we had pushed as far as we can, to defeat this problem and to deliver this project by Easter.”

We were on our way to achieving that, we needed only seven days to deliver this project. Unfortunately, the workers based on the advice of their families abandoned site.”