By Leke Baiyewu

The House of Representatives has called on the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to investigate a Chinese firm based in Edo State for allegedly detaining its Nigerian workers against the COVID -19 regulations. The workers were alleged to have been confined to the firm’s facility since March 24, 2020. The House also called on the Federal Ministry of Health and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control to be alert to the health status of the affected workers. At the plenary on Tuesday, the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, had moved a motion entitled, ‘Need to Investigate an SOS Call that a Chinese Company in Edo State of Nigeria has Continued to Detail its Nigerian Workers Since the Lockdown, in Fragrant Abuse of the FG’s COVID-19 Regulations.’ Consequently, the House resolved to “direct the Inspector-General of Police to immediately send a crack team to storm the said Youngxing Steel Company in Edo State, with a view to ascertaining the SOS and to set free the said detained workers pending further investigations.” The House also asked that the Presidential Committee on COVID-19 and the NCDC “be put on notice to ensure post-release management of the detained worker.”

Moving the motion, Elumelu expressed concern that Yongxing, a Chinese steel company located at Ugua community of Edo State, “is said to have locked down its Nigerian workers within the company’s facility, thereby depriving them access to their families since 24th day of March 2020 till date.” He said, “The House is aware that the workers, numbering over 1,000, are holed up there in 10 persons-to-a-room bunker, making them live in a hazardous environment which has hindered the health of most of the workers. These staffers are being made to work in slavish conditions 24 hours round the clock, day in and out for the last three months.”

Copyright PUNCH.

https://punchng.com/reps-charge-ig-to-probe-nigerians-77-day-detention-by-chinese-firm/

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