FG orders arrest of buyers of vandalised rail tracks

Abiola Seun

Worried by the continuous vandalisation of rail tracks across the country, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has directed the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) to arrest buyers of vandalised rail tracks.

Reacting to the recent vandalisation of rail tracks on the Itakpe to Warri rail line, the Minister said vandalism thrives because there are those who are willing to buy stolen equipments and if there are no buyers, vandals will stop.

Speaking on the sideline of inspection tour of the ongoing Lagos-Ibadan railway project over the weekend, the Minister said: “I don’t know why some Nigerians are like the way they are. I have told the Managing Director of NRC to arrest the buyers of the equipment. It is not enough to arrest the vandals.

“Also, we must approach the judiciary to have court that can dispense justice readily so that people are sent to jail early enough to deter others and we will also encourage our governors to create jobs.”

Amaehi also said e-ticketing platform would be deployed to Lagos-Ibadan route to manage passenger traffic and curtail any issue of ticket racketeering.

According to him, “I have directed the Managing Director of NRC to advertise for the e-ticketing and we hope the traffic that we will witness on this axis will be managed with that platform.”

On the date for commissioning of the Lagos-Ibadan rail project, the Minister said the project would be commissioned next month upon approval from the office of the President.

According to him, “I hope the office of the President will approve the commissioning of this project in June.

We will communicate the actual date in the next two weeks but certainly, I think it is in June.

“We are not 100 percent ready for commissioning but if for nothing, we are 89 to 90percent ready for commissioning.

“We are hoping that by the next three weeks we will be ready and by then, they will give us a date from the office of the President. One thing is that by the time they give us a date, we will be ready for commissioning.”