John Iwori

The Federal Government has raised the alarm on the stealing of rail components across the country, pointing out that if the act is not stopped, it may derail its goal to resuscitate the rail transport in line with President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation agenda.

Rail as a means of transportation was comatose until late last year when the rehabilitation of railways was given a boost with the completion of the multibillion naira Lagos to Kano rail track.

The poor state of rail transportation led to the high dependence on roads for the haulage of goods across the country. Besides the increase in the number of accidents caused by the heavy duty vehicles, particularly trailers and tankers, this has further worsened the poor state of roads across the country.

Already, the federal government has promised that other major rail lines, especially Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, would be completed this year.

Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, stated this after he was briefed by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation(NRC), Mr. Adeseyi Sijuwade, on the level of work done so far on the Lot 1 of the rehabilitation of the Eastern Line rail services.

Lot 1 covers the rail track from the Rivers State capital, Port Harcourt to the Benue State capital, Makurdi.
Umar, a former member of the National Assembly, expressed federal government’s displeasure over the frequent stealing of rail components by thieves. Sijuwade, a civil engineer, had in his briefing lamented the inability of the contractor handling the project, ESER Contracting and Industry Company Incorporated, to access the main quarry for the project located at Ishiagu near Enugu in Ebonyi State.

The NRC Managing Director said the denial of access was seriously affecting the progress of work on the project and implored Umar to use his office to assist in resolving the problem.
According to Sijuwade, a lot of stones, which form a major component of rail track laying, had already been crushed at the quarry by the contractor who had been prevented from accessing the site by some people laying claims to the quarry. Replacing stolen clips(Pandrol), another component of track-laying, was also affecting the smooth execution of the project.

Umar, in his response, said inspite of these challenges, the 2013 completion date for the project remained realisable. He promised to liaise with the Ebonyi State Governor, Chief Martin Elechi, towards resolving the issues surrounding the Ishiagu quarry.

He also directed the Managing Director of NRC to look into deploying the railway police to specific areas of thefts in order not to jeopardise the completion of the project.

Umar had earlier inspected other components imported for track laying at the Railway Station in Port Harcourt as well as reconstruction work at Iyama Bridge in Enugu and the erosion sites located at Kilometre 63, Aba, after which he proceeded to Gombe, Bauchi, Jos and Kafanchan and Lafia for further inspection.

The Eastern lines comprise lot 1, 463 kilometres Port Harcourt to Makurdi; lot 2, 1,016 kilometres Makurdi to Kuru with the inclusion of spur line to Jos and Kafanchan; and lot 3, 640 Km Kuru to Maiduguri

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/fg-thieves-threaten-rail-line-completion-steal-components/146606/

Whether they like it or not,Gej will deliver on his promises to nigerians.that's d fact.

Itoroetti :
Whether they like it or not,Gej will deliver on his promises to nigerians.that's d fact.

Quit being sentimental, what has individualism got to do with the above story that you just read? Na wao.
Yea...! Back to the post; Not deploying relevant security agencies to guard the equipments was an act of negligence on the part of the rail workers and the contractors handling the projects. Once upon a time, there was dispute between the police and the some civil defence officers on their job definitions and specifications. Since these people are eager to work, why not assign them to those posts?

However, I hope those projects are completed on time, so as to arrest the issues of the menace of truck and trailers on the roads, both in the day time and at night.
Reduce the cost of transporting goods & services across the nation.
Create employment opportunities etc.

Peace out.

Itoroetti :
Whether they like it or not,Gej will deliver on his promises to nigerians.that's d fact.

Now that the president, minister and managing director of the NRC are working round the clock to ensure that rail line is delivered, HATERS are busy tweeting. When the project is finally completed and put to use, HATERS will come with the silly propaganda of how Pa Awo signed the contract for the project in 1900. They'll tell us to go and worship Awo before putting the project to use. Lol. Yeye dey worry some people.

Some of these bad belle people that come here to spew hate may even the ones stealing the rail line components.

That is Nigeria for you. A very complex country. Even while battling to fix infrastructures, you'll also have to contend with sabotuers and enemies of progress. You fix transformer today, they'll vandalise it tomorrow and then come to NL to claim they'v not had light since 1800.

Sincere 9gerian:
Now that the president, minister and managing director NRC are working round the clock to ensure that rail line is delivered, HATERS are busy tweeting. When the project is finally completed and put to use, HATERS will come with the silly propaganda on how Pa Awo sign the contract for the project in 1900. Yeye dey worry some people.

Some of these bad belle people that come here to spew hate may even the ones stealing the rail line components.

That is Nigeria for you. A very complex country. Even while battling to fix infrastructures, you'll also have to contend with sabotuers and enemies of progress. You fix transformer today, they'll vandalise it tomorrow and then come to NL to claim they'v not had light since 1800.

Mr! e-fight no dey tire you? Common problems unites common people. Whatever happens to unification. By the way, who are you fighting with currently on this thread? Or is this a product of grudges that you have been nurturing? Let's live in peace mana. kai! Nwokem! Be cool and humble like a duka 4 once.

Are you sure the enemies of progress are not deliberately going and sabotaging the lines deep inside the forests away from the sight of anyone? I wouldn't put anything past them.

Sincere 9gerian:
Now that the president, minister and managing director of the NRC are working round the clock to ensure that rail line is delivered, HATERS are busy tweeting. When the project is finally completed and put to use, HATERS will come with the silly propaganda of how Pa Awo signed the contract for the project in 1900. They'll tell us to go and worship Awo before putting the project to use. Lol. Yeye dey worry some people.

Some of these bad belle people that come here to spew hate may even the ones stealing the rail line components.

That is Nigeria for you. A very complex country. Even while battling to fix infrastructures, you'll also have to contend with sabotuers and enemies of progress. You fix transformer today, they'll vandalise it tomorrow and then come to NL to claim they'v not had light since 1800.

Why bring AWO into your nonsense,even GEJ won't go that lane.

Just stick to you PDP/APC/ACN war and leave AWO out of it.

emmysenior:
Mr! e-fight no dey tire you? Common problems unites common people. Whatever happens to unification. By the way, who are you fighting with currently on this thread? Or is this a product of grudges that you have been nurturing? Let's live in peace mana. kai! Nwokem! Be cool and humble like a duka 4 once.

I got very angry when I saw the report. Why should fellow Nigerians sabotage efforts of govt to deliver services to the people. The most annoying is vandalism of electric power infrastructure.

As for the e-fight, its a continuous fight. I'm loaded.

emmatok:

Why bring AWO into your nonsense,even GEJ won't go that lane.

Just stick to you PDP/APC/ACN war and leave AWO out of it.

Save that silly advice for yourself. Pa Awo is not god. He was a human being like us, lived a good life and died. I decided to use his name to make a point to some people and I'm sure they got the message.

Sincere 9gerian:
Save that silly advice for yourself. Pa Awo is not god. He was a human being like us, lived a good life and died. I decided to use his name to make a point to some people and I'm sure they got the message.

Just shut it what silly point are you making.
Abraham L is not a god but Americans respect him.

I dare you to mention any Nigerian Leader who can match AWO achievement.
So much for your tribalism.

Stick to you PDP/ACN wahala.

emmatok:

Just shut it what silly point are you making.
Abraham L is not a god but Americans respect him.

I dare you to mention any Nigerian Leader who can match AWO achievement.
So much for your tribalism.

Stick to you PDP/ACN wahala.

I've mentioned his name and I'll do it again and again. So what will you do about it? Commit suicide? Silly fool!

I was expecting the silly poster to say the thieves stealing the rail components are APC members who are haters of Jonathan, but he didn't! But i might be right! that's what he actually meant. Or else who will be stealing it if not Members of ACN, CPC, ANPP and part of APGA? Jobless azz licking poster!

Better don't waste your time - just a simple advice.

emmatok:

Why bring AWO into your nonsense,even GEJ won't go that lane.

Just stick to you PDP/APC/ACN war and leave AWO out of it.

You are really into this thing too much.
Take a breather - if GEJ doesn't contest in 2015, loses if he contests or gets booted out 3 months later your life will still go on. But all this ventilating will take a toll on your psyche - since you know that at least 51% of what you say here is BS !!!

Sincere 9gerian:
Now that the president, minister and managing director of the NRC are working round the clock to ensure that rail line is delivered, HATERS are busy tweeting. When the project is finally completed and put to use, HATERS will come with the silly propaganda of how Pa Awo signed the contract for the project in 1900. They'll tell us to go and worship Awo before putting the project to use. Lol. Yeye dey worry some people.

Some of these bad belle people that come here to spew hate may even the ones stealing the rail line components.

That is Nigeria for you. A very complex country. Even while battling to fix infrastructures, you'll also have to contend with sabotuers and enemies of progress. You fix transformer today, they'll vandalise it tomorrow and then come to NL to claim they'v not had light since 1800.

ACN candidates knows about this

Wooo!! GEJ is on his way to reviving all the more than 3000km comatose rail lines that other Governments since the 1980s had abandoned, and still building new modern lines along side.

GEJ is simply turning out to be the BEST if he can continued on this path.

By the way, the Government should use the Security Agencies to fight this Rail component stealing. We dont want to hear that this was what made them not to complete the project o. We need results, no excuses; although, they have been doing very well so far.

nameo: Wooo!! GEJ is on his way to reviving all the more than 3000km comatose rail lines that other Governments since the 1980s had abandoned, and still building new modern lines along side.

GEJ is simply turning out to be the BEST if he can continued on this path.

By the way, the Government should use the Security Agencies to fight this Rail component stealing. We dont want to hear that this was what made them not to complete the project o. We need results, no excuses; although, they have been doing very well so far.

May God work on your life the same way Jonathan is working on Nigeria's affairs. Amen!

Sincere 9gerian:
I've mentioned his name and I'll do it again and again. So what will you do about it? Commit suicide? Silly fool!

May God work on your life the same way Jonathan is working on Nigeria's affairs. Amen!