Iron vandals and their collaborators, who trade or smelt the stolen irons have been warned to desist from attacking railway irons and sleepers as anyone caught would be treated as “economic saboteurs.”
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) Dr Kayode Opeifa, issued the warning while fielding questions from some reporters in his office recently.
“Let me warn in the stiffest language all those involved in removing, stealing our properties, or trading along the train tracks across the country. The Nigerian Police have been mandated to go after these saboteurs who are bent on destroying the nation’s economy,” Opeifa said.
He also warned all smelting foundries colluding with these saboteurs by buying off the iron materials stolen from railways to desist as their acts is injurious to the economy and may lead to train derailments which poses grave danger to train passengers.
Addressing traders who have converted the train tracks to markets, Opeifa said the tracks should be cleared of all human activities to prevent avoidable accidents.
“Train tracks is not supposed to be converted to markets, please leave our tracks, to avoid arrests by security agents,” he said.
On the worrisome incidents of vandals, he recalled that men of the Nigerian Railway Police Command (NRPC), in Kafanchan in Kachia Local Government of Kaduna State, recently caught two vandals, while over 70 iron sleepers and other iron materials stolen from the railway tracks, found stored in two apartments were seized.
Opeifa, who bemoaned the incessant attacks on railway properties, said this week, another set of these saboteurs were caught in another part of the country, cutting the narrow gauge tracks and attempting to make away with it.
He said the Nigerian Railway Corporation would treat any smelting foundry caught collaborating with these vandals as economic saboteurs.
“We would not stop warning all those in the iron smelting business to stop patronising the vandals who specializes in removing our fixed stocks. Any rail track stolen and any iron sleepers removed is injurious to the average Nigerian because such has been responsible for train derailments which may put other innocent Nigerians’ lives in danger,” Opeifa added.
He said the corporation would continue to leverage the success of the reactivated freight movement to keep all its lines busy as efforts are on to reopen abandoned routes, especially on the Lagos to Kano “Western narrow” gauge lines for massive movements of cargoes across the country.
The NRC boss said the reactivation of old lines such as Nguru, in Yobe State, Kaura and Idogo, in Ogun State among others would further reduce incidences of food scarcity as it would reduce transportation cost of moving farm produce from the farming hubs to the markets thereby reducing food scarcity and bring down the rate of inflation.
According to him, other lines being worked upon are the abandoned Jos-Kuru line, adding that in a matter of months, the corporation would also achieve seamless cargo movement beyond Ibadan from Lagos, as movement to Ilorin, Mokwa, and Minna would soon begin.
