January 10, (THEWILL) – Hundreds of passengers travelling to the northern parts of the country are stranded at Nigerian Railway Corporation, Minna terminal after a cargo train derailed from its track.
The cargo train which took off from Lagos about a week ago could not continue to Kano, its final destination after it derailed.
Passengers in other passenger trains coming from Lagos could not proceed as the detailed cargo train had blocked the tracks.
One of the stranded passengers, Idowu, said the technicians, who were at the site to evacuate the Kano bound cargo train from the Minna terminal to pave way for free movement of trains conveying passengers, were seen using jacks instead of a crane for the evacuation.
“Our problems are compounded by the fact that instead of using a crane, the NRC technicians are using ‘jack’ to evacuate the cargo train which is not only risky to the technicians due to its heaviness but also to the passengers.
“Imagine in this century, Nigeria is using jack to evacuate heavy duty trains like this instead of having a crane to do the job. What if the train, which is about to fall off, falls on any of the mechanics, or engineers, or even the passengers?”, he asked.
Majority of the passengers who are returning to their base after the Christmas and New Year holidays condemned the pace of the evacuation.
However, efforts to get the reaction of the railway authority in Minna terminal failed as at the time of this report.
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