NRC loses 150,000 rail clips to vandalism

The Managing Director, Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Mr Fidet Okhiria, said that the corporation lost over 150,000 rail clips due to constant vandalism along railway tracks across the country between 2022 and 2023.

Okhiria made the disclosure during the end of the year media briefing in Lagos on Thursday.

He said that over 50,000 clips each had been vandalised between Lagos – Ibadan, Warri- Itakpe and Abuja -Kaduna standard gauge tracks between 2022 and 2023.

Okhiria said that the corporation had engaged in constant sensitisation to communities where the vandalism took place to make them to realise the implication of the act to the growth of rail networking in the country.

“The only issue we have now is vandalism of the tracks, which is a big problem. When we replace the tracks, they will come back and vandalise the track again.

“Just before the Christmas, the hoodlums vandalised over 200 clips between Mushin -Oshodi area and we had to replace them three days after the vandalism.

“We are looking for a way to protect the clips, we will also continue to discuss it at the management meeting where we will have to engage a special person to guide our position,” Okhiria said.

He said that in spite of the constant arrests on the vandalism, the corporation still recorded clips being vandalised from time to time.

The managing director,said that the only solution to stop the vandalism of the train track clips was to try and occupy the trains on daily basis.