Police arrest two for vandalising Railway Tracks In Lagos 

By Sodiq Adelakun

Two people in Lagos State, Southwest region have been arrested by the Nigeria Police Force.

They were nabbed for allegedly conveying vandalized railway tracks.

The suspects were reportedly arrested on Monday morning by the Ijora Badia Division of the Lagos State command.

SP Benjamin Hundeyin, Lagos Command’s spokesman, confirmed the arrest in a statement issued via his Twitter handle on Monday.

He wrote, “At about 1am today, a patrol team from Ijora Badia Division intercepted a Mitsubishi Lancer car conveying vandalised railway tracks.

“The two occupants of the vehicle have been arrested. Investigation is ongoing.”

It was gathered in February 2022 that passengers were stranded as a result of activities of hoodlums on the rail track of the Lagos-Ibadan rail line.

The hoodlums had then removed some of the components of the rail line, forcing the train to stop.

A train, which was said to have departed the Obafemi Awolowo Train Station, Ibadan, Oyo State, at 8:30am on Saturday was stopped somewhere before Funmilayo Ransom Kuti at the Papalanto area due to the vandals’ activities.

The 157 kilometres Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge railway started commercial operations in September 2020.

There had been a similar incident in January 2022 when a train was forced to stop for about 35 minutes before the journey later continued.

Activities of railway vandals have increased exponentially since 2015 after Muhammadu Buhari emerged Nigeria’s President. For instance, since 2015 Eastern rail corridor had been completely liquidated. Tracks completely vandalized making it impossible to reactivate the Eastern corridor.