The Managing Director (MD) of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Kayode Opeifa, on Wednesday, said he takes full responsibility for the derailment of the Abuja-Kaduna train along the Kaduna corridor.
Opeifa, who spoke on Channels Television, said the ongoing investigation into the incident would not be swept under the carpet.
According to her, there was no fatality, which he said was a near miss due to the kind of accident. He also noted that four were seriously injured, while another two were discharged immediately.
He, however, said that though the incident should not have happened, the NRC would ensure that there was no recurrence.
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.
“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.
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“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.
“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.
“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.
