Delta Directs Contractors Back to Sites

The Delta State Government has vowed to do all within its power to ensure that infrastructural and socio-economic development across the state is not unduly stalled because of COVID-19 pandemic.

The state Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu, who made this assertion while briefing journalists on the coronavirus situation in the state on Thursday in Asaba, said the government has taken some decisions to gradually return life in the state to pre-coronavirus era.

Accordingly, contractors handling various projects across the state have been ordered back to site, Aniagwu said, quoting the Works Commissioner, James Augoye, as saying that some contractors have already returned to site, taking advantage of the relatively delay of heavy rainfall.

Work on the final phase of the N13 billion state secretariat complex in Asaba will also resume as soon as restrictions on international flights are relaxed, he said.

Restrictions on the number of worshippers who may be congregated in churches or places of worship and mosques has been relaxed, but with directive to adhere strictly to social and physical distancing as well as hand washing and the use of face masks, the commissioner added.

 

Aniagwu, who was joined at the news briefing by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr Olisa Ifeajika, noted that the adjustments in the number of persons allowed in each session in churches was based on consultations with the Christian leaders, saying churches can now hold different sessions on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.

He, however, commended the leadership of the Muslim community in the state, including the Arewa community, for directing their members to observe the Ramadan prayers and Sallah celebration at home simply because they rightly considered the challenge of having to control children in the mosque and at the open prayer grounds under the prevailing circumstance.

Aniagwu commended the state Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, for "thinking out of the box to reinvigorate the local economy" despite the downsizing of the state 2020 budget by as much as N100 billion from the initial N395 billion budget for the fiscal year due to drastic drop in revenue projections caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.