The Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, Kayode Opeifa, says he takes full responsibility for Tuesday’s derailment of the Abuja-Kaduna train, which occurred along the Kaduna corridor shortly after departure from Abuja.
Speaking during an appearance on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Wednesday, Opeifa assured Nigerians that the ongoing investigation into the incident would be thorough and transparent.
“Beyond apologising to Nigerians, I want to state clearly—as the Managing Director and Chief Executive—I take full responsibility.
“When it comes to safety, there is no room for indifference. Once something like this happens, the chief executive must own it—and I do,” he said.
The MD said the injuries of four of the Abuja-Kaduna train passengers were serious.
Opeifa stated, “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.”
He, however, said that though the incident should not have happened, the NRC would ensure that there was no 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,” he added.
Asked whether there was any suspicion around sabotage regarding the incident, Opeifa 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 chief executive said that NSIB would have to declare the site open for reconstruction before the corporation would do a safety audit to determine when services on the route would be reopened.
“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,” Opeifa stated.
The incident occurred on Tuesday along the Kaduna corridor shortly after the train left Abuja at about 11 am, en route to Kaduna.
A passenger on board the train described the scene as chaotic, with people scrambling to safety.
Following the incident, the NRC suspended train operations on the Abuja-Kaduna route till further notice.
Opeifa had, while briefing journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, hours after the incident, said that some technical staff of the corporation, alongside the Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) and other relevant agencies, were on the ground at the train derailment site carrying out an investigation.
He also dismissed claims that the trains were not in good condition and said the refund of the ticket fees had been initiated for all passengers on board.
In January 2023, an Abuja-Kaduna train derailed in the Kubwa area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), a few minutes from its destination – Kubwa.
While confirming the incident, the management of NRC said no casualty was recorded.
