Passengers Call For Safety Audit As Booking Remains Unchanged – Independent Newspaper Nigeria

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LAGOS – Following the derailment of a passenger train along the Abuja-Kaduna route, Nige­rians travelling along the railway corridors have called on the government to carry out an extensive nationwide safety audit on rail tracks across the country.

In January 2023, an Abuja-Kaduna train derailed in the Kubwa area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), a few minutes from its destination – Kubwa.

A survey of the online booking platform on Wednesday, August 25, 2025, for the 4 p.m. schedule along the 157-kilometre Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge train services showed that as of 3.32 p.m., the 576-passenger capacity train was about 97 per cent booked.

The first class and the business class coaches with a total of 80 pas­sengers were fully booked. Standard Coaches 5, 6, 7 and 8, with a total ca­pacity of 440 passengers in total had 24 unoccupied about 25 minutes be­fore departure.

However, some regular travellers along the Lagos-Ibadan route, in an interview with Travel and Hospitality, appealed to the authority of the Nige­rian Railway Corporation (NRC) to conduct a comprehensive safety audit of the rail tracks across the country.

A respondent, Kunle Subair, said the accident that occurred on Tues­day was unforeseen, was not enough to discourage him from patronising the services provided by the corpo­ration.

“To those who were involved in the accident, I wish them a quick recovery. I am appealing to the NRC, the Chinese company managing the facility, and the Federal Government to ensure the rail is safe for travellers since it has become dangerous to move around the country by road.

“The train remains the only mode of transportation considered safe for the average Nigerian because air trav­el is not affordable,’ he said.

A business class traveller, who pleaded anonymity, urged NRC to ensure quality maintenance of the train operations as he observed that unusual noise is sometimes heard as the coaches’ glide on the rail tracks.

“It has been about four years since the Lagos-Ibadan train operation was launched. If you ask me, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive maintenance check of both the rails and the engine coaches. I observed that some facilities are calling for checks. Some charging ports in some of the coaches have gone bad. Stench from the toilets hangs in the air inside the coaches, and this must be checked. The escalator sometimes creaks with a disturbing noise. Even the lifts fail to function all the time. All of these call for comprehensive maintenance,” he added.

Responding to issues bordering on maintenance of the railway, Kayode Opeifa, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), dismissed speculations that the trains were not properly maintained, insist­ing that the corporation has consis­tently adhered to safety standards.

However, as Nigerians await the outcome of the investigation by the technical staff of the corporation, in collaboration with the Nigeria Safe­ty Investigation Bureau (NSIB) and other relevant agencies, the Manag­ing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, Kayode Opeifa, said on Wednesday he had taken full respon­sibility for the derailment of the Abu­ja-Kaduna train along the Kaduna corridor on Tuesday.

Opeifa, who spoke on Channels Television’s ‘The Morning Brief’, as­sured the ongoing investigation into the incident would not be swept under the carpet.

“Let me say, beyond apologising to Nigeria, I want to say as the manag­ing director and chief executive, I take full responsibility. And in the case of safety, there is no indifference.

“Once it happens, the chief execu­tive must take responsibility. In this case, I am taking responsibility,” said Opeifa.

Opeifa stated: “Coming to the fa­tality and the casualties, there was no fatality. We thank God. That was a near miss because for this kind of ac­cident or incident, you see some level of fatality, but we thank God for this.

‘And for those who were injured, four are serious, and another two or so were discharged immediately, and we will follow up on those that might still be in the hospital.

“I don’t know as of this moment, we’ll follow up. So we’ll also follow up with the remaining 618 people on the train because of the post-traumatic experience. We have the full contacts and we’ll do that.”

He, however, said that though the incident should not have happened, the NRC would ensure that there was no recurrence.

“I want to assure Nigerians that an incident like this is not expected, is not prayed for, should not be happen­ing, but where it does, it is to bring out the best in us.