HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PROBE NRC ON STOLEN RAIL TRACKS 25-03-24
By Sadiq Aminu The House of Representatives has directed the Nigeria Railways Corporation, NRC, to evaluate and furnished its committee on Land Transport, the total cost of the stolen rail tracks and other equipments of NRC and the ones recovered.
The committee also queried the Corporation for poor communication gap during the relocation of coaches from Borno State to Plateau State that gave impression that the Coaches were stolen
During an investigative hearing by the Committee on Land Transport, the House tasked the NRC to step up their efforts in carrying out their mandates.
The Chairperson committee on Land Transport, Blessing Onuh, expressed concern over the destruction of the NRC critical infrastructure.
The Managing Director Nigeria Railways Corporation, Dr. Freeborn Okhiria, told the Committee that the movement of Coaches from Maiduguri was official and necessary stakeholders were informed about the movement.
Dr. Okhiria, said the relocation of the Coaches from Maiduguri to the Corporation workshop in Jos was to fix and service it for effective service delivery.
The Commissioner of Police, Railway command, CP Fred Okpetutu said the movement of Coaches from one location to another is an internal arrangement of the NRC that does not require an approval of the IGP except for exceptional cases.
The investigation hearing was to unravel the causes of stolen rail tracks, tickets reckeetering and other ugly incidents and how to address it.
Recently, there were reported stories on online and some conventional Media that rail coaches were alleged to be stolen in Maiduguri, though it has since been debunked by NRC.