The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has commenced investigation of suspended officials involved in ticket racketeering on the Lagos-Ibadan rail service.
A twitter user on board the rail service from Abeokuta to Lagos, had on Tuesday, lamented the level of racketeering being carried out by the officials of the NRC.
The user, Daramola E. Adenike @Dara4Enjoyment, posted a video of the officials collecting cash while on board the moving train. Adenike said: “On my way to Lagos from Ibadan today, some NRC employees lured us to board the train without tickets. Initially, they acted like they were taking us to the ticket counter only for them to lead us to the railway without an official ticket. They collected cash on transit.
“We arrived at the Train Station at about 3:40p.m. While we were walking to the entrance of Obafemi Awolowo Train Station Ibadan, a uniformed NRC official approached us.
“My friends and I followed him thinking he was leading us to the ticket counter only for us to pass through screening and head towards the Railway.
“I immediately told him that we do not have tickets to board the train but he said I shouldn’t worry that it would be sorted.
“When we got to Funmilayo Kuti Station in Abeokuta, people boarded the train but guess what? They sold Coach seven tickets to them without an assigned seat.”
Confirming the incident to The Guardian, Regional District Manager, Lagos, Augustine Arisa, said the officials have been identified and suspended, while investigation was ongoing. Arisa said it wasn’t the first instance as he had severally arrested officials of the corporation involved in the process with railway police.
According to him, he usually carries out inspections on a regular basis to forestall such happenings in Lagos before departing for Ibadan.
Also, Deputy Director, Public Relations, NRC, Yakub Mahmood, said the misconduct was regrettable and unacceptable as it negates the tenets and norms of the Corporation.
He condemned the act of misconduct by the officials, saying such flagrant disobedience to laid down rules was an utter betrayal of the confidence reposed in the workers, especially at this time that the Federal Government was making efforts at revitalising and modernising the Corporation.
Mahmood in a statement, yesterday, said the misconduct was regrettable and unacceptable as it negates the tenets and norms of the NRC.
“The Corporation, has therefore, placed the identified erring officers on immediate suspension pending the outcome of the in-depth investigation already on-going by the Management Committee set up to look into the issue.
“Following a viral video that has been trending on various social media platforms, vividly showing Railway Staff negotiating with our esteemed passengers on-board Lagos – Ibadan Trans Service (LITS) to pay without obtaining official boarding ticket, the General Public is invited to note that the NRC seriously abhors such behaviours,” he said.
Mahmood assured passengers and the public that such an unwholesome attitude and image dent by any staff would not be tolerated nor treated with any levity. He said the Management of NRC enjoins all intending passengers on LITS and other train corridors to insist and demand for boarding ticket(s) after making appropriate payment at the designated stations or book online appropriately.
According to him, the electronic ticketing system has been deployed, and will be available on both the Lagos – Ibadan Train Service and the Warri – Itakpe Train Service (WITS) by the end of October.
