NRC to clampdown on buyers of vandalised rail tracks
By Seun Ibiyemi
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Ameachi, has mandated the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to go after buyers of vandalised rail tracks in the country.
The minister, who lamented the rampant vandalisation and theft of the rail tracks across the country, said that if the vandals do no have buyers, there won’t be much enthusiasm for them to steal these critical national assets.
Ameachi, who was on the inspection tours of the Lagos-Ibadan railway project, wondered why people have lost moral values as to vandalise and steal Nigerians’ common heritage.
“I don’t know why some Nigerians behave the way they do. 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 a 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.”
Amaechi also said an e-ticketing platform would be deployed to the 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.
