Rotimi Amaechi, Nigeria’s Transport Minister, has revealed that 15,000 rail clips have been stolen by vandals at the Abuja-Kaduna rail so far, adding that the Federal Government has commenced massive installations of anti-theft clips to check acts of vandalism.
Amaechi disclosed this to State House correspondents on Friday, in Abuja, while talking about measures adopted by his ministry to guard against the thefts, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
He said due to the NRC losing and replacing 15,000 clips on the rail line, the Transport Ministry had resolved to henceforth install anti-theft clips to guard against the stealing of the rail tracks and other facilities.
”Like the Kaduna-Abuja rail line, where over 6,000 to 10,000 clips have been stolen and have to be replaced daily so that we don’t have a situation where the train derails,” he said.
”These clips are not made in Nigeria. They are bought overseas. So, we buy them in dollars.
”Part of the solution is something called anti-theft clips. But, they are more expensive. It is three times more expensive than the current one, but it’s better.
”We are now replacing them with anti-theft clips in Lagos-Ibadan. All other constructions will now be anti-theft. With anti-theft, you can’t open it. You can’t remove it.
”We need to now go back to the Abuja-Kaduna line and change them to anti-theft clips.
”I don’t know why we had not made that decision earlier, because we have changed up to 10,000 to 15,000 clips in six years,” he added.
The Minister also urged for harsh penalties for anyone caught vandalising railway facilities, in a bid to deter others.
”I think the law should deal with those who break it. The law should not be quiet. I don’t know what the law says, but a Chinese company arrested for buying those tracks got away with only a N200,000 fine.
”The law should give us much more than that. We got a Chinese company in Jos buying those stolen facilities from the vandals. A few months later, we arrested a Chinese man in Nasarawa. That is the issue of vandals” he said.
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- Amaechi also revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari would flag off the construction of the Kano-Kaduna rail project within the next 2 weeks. He added that the government had so far paid N13 billion for the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail project, while another N10 billion would soon be paid to speed up action on the project.
- Rotimi Amaechi, further disclosed that the Federal Government had committed about $280 million to the $1.2 billion Kaduna-Kano rail project, which is a continuation of the already completed Abuja-Kaduna rail line.
