The House of Representatives Tuesday set up an Adhoc committee to probe the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) over cases of trains’ breakdowns.
This followed the adoption of a motion by the House Minority Leader, Ndudi Godwin Elumelu, who recalled that on March 11, a Lagos-Ibadan train-bound broke down due to insufficient fuel, endangering the lives of the travellers.
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He said it was disturbing that a train would leave the station with insufficient fuel only to get stuck midway into the journey with traumatised and stranded passengers.
He described the incident as “a huge national embarrassment which not only makes our nation a laughing stock in the eyes of the international community but a complete system failure.”
He said the “episode exposes the carelessness, irresponsibility and incompetence of the management of the Nigeria Railway Corporation to effectively and efficiently manage the sector.”
He said in recent times, “there have been series of media reports of how passenger trains breakdown in the middle of nowhere for lack of maintenance thereby subjecting commuters to possible attacks by hoodlums and armed robbers who can brutalize, maim and cart away hard-earned monies and goods of innocent Nigerians.”
Elumelu expressed concern over what he described as “operational incompetence” of the NRC in the issuance of tickets, thus, giving room for racketeering and hoarding.
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