The House of Representatives has commenced investigations on incessant vandalisation of Railway properties in Nigeria.
The probe is being conducted by the Committee on Land Transport.
The Committee demanded from the Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC comprehensive explanations and evidences on the alleged vandalisation of rail tracks and other Corporation’s assets across the country.
The Chairman of the Committee, Blessing Onuh described the development as evil and unacceptable, and must be stopped, to forestall rail accidents which she noted must be avoided at all costs.
The lawmaker said that the investigation was prompted by noticeable incidents observed during the movement of coaches from Maiduguri to Jos which sparked speculations about alleged diversion and stealing of NRC’s assets across the country.
She stated that Nigerians were worried about the state of assets of the NRC, especially as regards the safety of the tracks amidst incidences of vandalisation of the tracks, sleepers and other gadgets which were intercepted in many parts of the country.
The committee also fingered some NRC staff as being involved in the scam to fester their pockets.
In his contribution, a member of the committee, Joshua Gana urged joint security team securing the rail to be more proactive in the discharge of their duties.
Ganal also called for a healthy development of the Nigerian railway sector.
He said that there was the need to stop the internal theft of Nigeria assets.
He added that the NRC needed to have a coach that monitors rail tracks for safety reasons before allowing passengers to embark on journeys.
The Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Cooperation, Mr. Fyneboss Okhiria in his response, explained that what was taken as vandalisation and theft were in fact obsolete and rundown equipment highlight for replacement.
The Committee was however not satisfied with the NRC boss explanations, describing them as unreasonable and insisted that there were shady deals involved in the whole setup.
VON