THE Federal Government has assured passengers of the Warri-Itakpe train service of their safety as it resumed operation today.
This is coming after the train accident that occurred on Thursday at the Major Gen. David Ejoor Rail Station.
The Minister of Transportation, Senator Ahmed Alkali, gave the assurance, yesterday, during an inspection of the Agbor-Abraka rail station.
The minister, represented by the ministry’s acting Permanent Secretary, Mr. Pius Oteh, said their first observation was to see that the track had been fixed.
He said, “Our first observation is to see that normalcy has been restored. We are here on the directive of the minister who was concerned when the accident happened on Thursday night.
“NRC is the operator of all our rail services and we are aware that they have already begun to take preliminary steps to ascertain what happened and ensure everybody was safe and conduct further investigation.
“As supervisory ministry of NRC also finds the need to have a first assessment of the situation.
“You know that the Warri-Itakpe railway is a critical component of our National railway infrastructure. We are happy to be here and express the minister’s concern.
“We are happy that the incident did not lead to any casualty, it is an operational issue, and we are happy to see that NRC has used their internal resources to fix the track. “By tomorrow, (today), the train will resume its operation. We thanked God that the accident did not claim any life.”
While commending the Nigeria Railway Corporation for efficient and effective service over the years, the minister disclosed that to run two sessions daily is on course.
On the issue of kidnapping around the railway, the minister said that security agencies were working very well to address the trend.
He assured all of the safety of the public and encouraged them to continue using the train, noting that efforts are ongoing to extend the railway line to Abuja.
Also speaking during the inspection, the Managing Director, NRC, Freeborn Okhiria, appealed to the people of Delta State to own railway facilities in a bid to keep them safe, asserting that the facilities did not belong to the President nor the minister.
He said that all the things happening here were man-made issues, noting that NRC is trying to expand the number of coaches as the time of operation has been limited due to security issues.
