House urges NRC to provide measures, curb accidents

By Tom Okpe

The House of Representatives, has urged the Nigeria Railway Corporation, (NRC) to provide measures that will curb incessant train, vehicles accidents in the country.

The House, on Tuesday at its resumed plenary after the Governorship/States of Assemblies elections, observed a minute silence in honour of the casualties of the various train mishaps in Nigeria, also, directing the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau, (NSIB) to investigate causes of various train accidents.

The resolution was after a motion under matters of urgent public importance, sponsored by Rep Unyime Idem, who noted the urgent need to curb incessant loss of lives in train mishaps.

The lawmaker recalled that in January 2023, a train accident was reported in the Kubwa axis of Abuja, which claimed the life of Selimota Suleiman, a staff of the Nigerian Television Authority, while on Thursday, March 9, 2023, a moving train rammed into a BRT bus in Lagos State, claiming about six lives and many others injured.

He further recalled that on March 28, 2022, an Abuja – Kaduna train was attacked, and many Nigerians lost their lives while others were either injured or abducted, also, a Warri – Itakpe bounded train, derailed in Kogi forest, leaving not less than 300 passengers stranded barely a month after about 20 passengers were abducted from a train station in Igueben, Edo State.

“In spite of these unfortunate trends, which are, as a result of the carelessness of some individuals, no one has ever been held to account for the unfortunate loss of lives,”he lamented.

“These unfortunate incidents are occurring very often because not much seems to be done to forestall the occurrences,” he added.