The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has blamed vandals for the derailment of a Lagos-Kano Express passenger train over the weekend.
The NRC confirmed this Monday, saying the derailment involves two baggage vans, which occurred at kilometre 463-464 Bode Sadu-Jebba section in the Western District of the Corporation.
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Daily Trust reports that this is coming a few days after the Managing Director of the NRC, Engr. Fidet Okhiria raised the alarm over the increasing vandalisation of railway tracks.
Our correspondent learnt that the derailment occurred at a vandalised part of the tracks, which only affected the baggage VAN with passengers unhurt.
The train, sources said, left the scene immediately and arrived in Kano in the late hours of Sunday.
Deputy Director, Public Relations of the NRC, Mr Yakub Mahmood, in a statement, said the corporation’s team of engineers had been deployed to the site to restore the affected portion that was vandalised as soon as possible.
Mahmood reiterated that attacks on the critical infrastructure of the NRC especially the tracks on both narrow and standard gauge railway lines had not abated.
According to the statement, critical infrastructures “are being wantonly vandalised by unscrupulous elements, thwarting the efforts of the federal government in the rehabilitation and modernisation of the entire railway system.
“This is why the MD during the occasion enjoined the media to sensitise and enlighten the general public on the dangers associated with track vandalisation of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, which is now seriously compromising the safety of our critical infrastructures and passengers as well, by way of accidents.
“Any culprit apprehended must surely face the full wrath of extant law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the statement added.
