I TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ABUJA-KADUNA TRAIN DERAILMENT

Read Time:3 Minute, 29 Second

By: Sefiu Ajape

The Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Kayode Opeifa, on Wednesday accepted full responsibility for the derailment of the Abuja–Kaduna train along the Kaduna corridor on Tuesday.

Appearing on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, Opeifa stressed that the ongoing probe 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,” Opeifa stated.

He explained that four of the injured passengers sustained serious wounds.

Opeifa added, “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.”

Although he admitted the incident should never have occurred, Opeifa assured Nigerians that measures were being taken to prevent a 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.

“And I assure Nigerians that just as we are doing currently on the Warri-Itakpe, which he (the analyst) also mentioned, we shut down the Warri-Itakpe (route) three weeks ago.

“I ordered the shutdown for safety reasons, and if you see the level of work the men have been doing on the track, cutting it off and replacing it is to make sure things like this don’t happen.”

On whether sabotage was suspected, he said, “It would be premature for me to speak on that because that will be undermining the authority that is meant to do the investigation. But I want to assure Nigerians that our tracks are safe from vandals and terrorists.

“This particular track is being monitored by the military. You can see that immediately it (the derailment) happened, within five, 10 minutes, the helicopter was there hovering.

“The Nigerian Air Force and the Nigerian army are all along this corridor, and I think, for the record, we’ve not had any issue of banditry, terrorism attack along that corridor.

“But you can’t wish anything away. The investigation will tell us what happened, and I wouldn’t want to comment because I’m a party to the investigation.”

Safety Audit Before Reopening

The NRC boss explained that the Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) must declare the site ready for reconstruction before a safety audit would be carried out to determine when services could resume.

“The first thing that will happen is that the NSIB will determine when the site is open for reconstruction.

“So, from the time they tell us that it’s ready for reconstruction, I don’t see us spending more than 30 days. So it depends on when they declare the site open for reconstruction,” he said.

The derailment occurred on Tuesday shortly after the train left Abuja around 11 am, heading to Kaduna.

A passenger described the scene as chaotic, with many scrambling for safety.

Following the incident, the NRC suspended services on the Abuja–Kaduna corridor until further notice.

Earlier, Opeifa told journalists in Abuja that technical staff of the corporation, along with the NSIB and other agencies, were already at the site conducting an investigation.

He also dismissed claims of poor train maintenance and confirmed that refunds had been initiated for all affected passengers.

In January 2023, a similar Abuja–Kaduna train derailment occurred in the Kubwa area of the FCT, but no casualties were recorded.