The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has raised the alarm over persistent vandalisation of rail tracks across the country.
NRC Managing Director Fidet Okhiria stated this while addressing reporters yesterday at the corporation’s headquarters in Lagos.
He said: “We called this press conference to call attention to the increasing rate of vandalisation of some of our lines by hoodlums across the country. It is becoming alarming and very serious. It is our desire to reiterate that we need to maintain what we have and keep it working rather than destroy it and go back to where we were before.”
Okhiria, who said the removal of the rail tracks were hitherto restricted to the narrow gauge, said the hoodlums have become so daring that they have started attacking the standard gauge, removing the clips with the intention to remove the tracks.
The NRC boss noted that sabotaging the rail and the fixed infrastructure is not in the best interest of Nigeria.
He said it would be better to keep the nation’s infrastructure has working so that those using it now would leave it behind for generations to come to appreciate what today’s citizens collectively suffered for.
Okhiria said: “The rate of vandalisation of our infrastructure is becoming alarming and very serious. I don’t want to mention particular regions but people are sabotaging the tracks so badly. We have had issues between Papalanto and Abeokuta. We have had issues close to Ajaokuta, of people trying to vandalise the tracks and even the coaches.