The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) says it has lost over one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) rail clips to incessant vandalism of the country’s railway tracks.
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, Fidet Okhiria, made the disclosure at the end-of-year media briefing in Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria.
He said that over fifty thousand (50,000) clips each had been vandalized between Lagos – Ibadan, Warri – Itakpe, and Abuja – Kaduna standard gauge tracks from 2022 to 2023.
According to him, the corporation had engaged the affected communities in constant sensitization to the implications of vandalism to the growth of rail networking in the country.
“The only issue we have now is vandalism of the tracks, which is a big problem. When we replace the tracks, they will come back and vandalize the tracks again.
Just before Christmas, the hoodlums vandalized over 200 clips between the Mushin – Oshodi area of Lagos State, and we had to replace them three days after the vandalism.
We are looking for a way to protect the clips. We will also continue to discuss it at the management meeting, where we will have to engage a special person to guide our position,” Okhiria said.
He maintained that in spite of the constant arrests made, the corporation still reported rail clips being vandalized from time to time.
Okhiria noted that the only solution to curb railway vandalism was to ensure regular train operation on the tracks.
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