The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has disclosed a substantial loss of over 150,000 rail clips due to persistent vandalism of the country’s railway tracks. Fidet Okhiria, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, revealed this information during the end-of-year media briefing in Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria.
Okhiria outlined that the vandalism occurred along key routes, with 50,000 rail clips each targeted between Lagos – Ibadan, Warri – Itakpe, and Abuja – Kaduna standard gauge tracks from 2022 to 2023. Despite the corporation’s efforts to engage affected communities in ongoing awareness campaigns regarding the detrimental impact of vandalism on the country’s rail network, the problem persists.
“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 vandalise the tracks again. Just before Christmas, the hoodlums vandalised over 200 clips between the Mushin – Oshodi area of Lagos State, and we had to replace them three days after the vandalism,” Okhiria stated.
In response to the challenge, the NRC is exploring ways to protect the rail clips and is considering engaging a specialist to enhance security measures. Okhiria emphasised that, despite ongoing arrests, incidents of rail clip vandalism continue to occur. He asserted that ensuring regular train operations on the tracks remains the key solution to curbing railway vandalism.