Reps to investigate Ibadan-Lagos train fuel saga

An adhoc committee has been asked to do a status inquiry of the railway corporation and report back within four weeks.

News Agency of Nigeria • March 15, 2022

House of Representatives, [PHOTO CREDIT: Official Twitter handle of Reps NGR]

The House of Representatives plans to investigate the circumstances that led to a train conveying passengers from Lagos to Ibadan running out of fuel midway during the journey.

This followed the adoption of a motion by Ndudi Elumelu, the minority leader of the House on Tuesday in Abuja.

In his motion, Mr Elumelu said in recent times, that there had been series of media reports of how passenger trains breakdown midway for lack of maintenance.

The lawmaker said incident like this had subjected commuters to possible attacks by hoodlums who could brutalise, maim and cart away hard earned monies and goods of innocent Nigerians.

“Another sad episode happened on March 11, where a train conveying passengers and goods from Lagos to Ibadan came to a halt midway due to insufficient fuel.

“This has once again endangered the lives of innocent Nigerian travellers on the trip,” he said.

The lawmaker said the Nigeria Railway Corporation needed to improve its services by first putting an end to the area of ticket racketeering and hoarding.

According to him, this undermines government revenue which has inhibited target loan repayment and constituted economic sabotage.

On the March 11 incident, he said “Such episode exposes the carelessness, irresponsibility and incompetence of the management of NRC to effectively and efficiently manage the sector.

“For a train to leave the station with insufficient fuel only to get stuck midway into the journey with traumatised and stranded passengers, is a huge national embarrassment,” he said.

He observed that the excuse by Fidelis Okhiria, NRC Managing Director, was not just laughable but pointed to the inability of the management to effectively conduct routine standard operational checks.

The lawmaker further said the development had raised serious issues about the safety and reliability of the country’s rail services which should be seriously investigated.

The house resolved that an adhoc committee be set up to do a status inquiry of NRC and its inadequacies and report back within four weeks.

(NAN)