Abuja-Kaduna Train Derailment: I Take Responsibility, Says Railway Boss

THE Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Kayode Opeifa, on Wednesday, August 27, accepted full responsibility for Tuesday, August 26, derailment of the Abuja-Kaduna train along the Kaduna corridor.
Speaking on a television programme, Opeifa, however, assured that ongoing investigation into the incident would not be swept under the carpet, noting: “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 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.
“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 stated that though the incident should not have happened, the NRC would guard against recurrence, noting: “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.
“I assure Nigerians that we are currently on the Warri-Itakpe, also mentioned. We shut down the route three weeks ago for safety reasons and our men have been doing great job on the track, cutting it off and replacing it to make sure things like this don’t happen.”
Opeifa said it would be premature for him to speak on whether there was any suspicion of sabotage, as that would be undermining the authority meant to do the investigation, even as he assured Nigerians that the tracks were 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 to 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 or 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.”
On reopening the route, the NRC boss said the Nigeria Safety and Investigation Bureau (NSIB) would have to declare the site open for reconstruction before the corporation would do a safety audit to determine when services would be reopened.
“The first thing that will happen is that the NSIB will determine when the site is open for reconstruction. 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 also dismissed suggestions that the trains were not in good condition, disclosing that refund of the ticket fees to the affected passengers had been initiated.