The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC)

  • NRC MD jailed three months for contempt 

    A Federal High Court, Lagos Friday sentenced the Managing Director (MD) of Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), Mr. Fidet Okhiria, to three months in prison custody for contempt ex facie curiae (outside the court).

    Justice Cecilia Mojisola Olatoregun found Okhiria guilty and convicted him in absentia following his alleged refusal to appear before the court despite several summons.

    Justice Olatoregun, in her ruling, noted among others, that the contemnor was disobedient to the law and treated judicial proceedings with levity.

    The judge held: “I have looked at the various affidavits placed before the court and have examined the papers filed from both sides.

    “The contemnor in particular continued to disobey the law. Even if he did not have the notice between February, March till date, he ought to have been guided by his lawyer.

    “He has not given reason to disobey the court. He treated the court order with levity. I am left with no option than to convict him.

    “I hereby sentence him to three months imprisonment”.

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    Justice Olatoregun ordered that Okhiria should remain in prison custody till September 25, when the case will continue.

    The judge, on February 15, 2018 threatened to order Okhiria’s arrest for his alleged “perpetual refusal” to appear before the court in a (committal proceeding) suit filed against him by a former NRC employee Mr. Benedict O. Iheakam.

    But Okhiria, through his counsel Mr. Opeyemi Igbayiloye, sometime in March, informed the court that he was out of the country on official assignment.

    Igbayiloye tendered a 13-paragraph affidavit sworn to by NRC secretary Obiorah Emedolibe.

    Emedolibe said: “Initial non-compliance immediately was not deliberate nor attributable to the act or inaction of Engineer Okhiria but due to the misplacement of the judgment creditor’s personnel file, the retrenchment, retirement and or death of key staff conversant with the suit and the bureaucracy usually associated with the civil service.

    “Okhiria travelled out of the country to China on official duty since February 7, 2018, as part of Federal Government team on fund sourcing for the Railway Modernization projects.”

    But Justice Olatoregun ordered Okhiria to show evidence of his foreign trip, including providing his travel documents such as international passport, flight tickets and Visa.

    In another sitting, the court directed Okhiria to show cause why he did not comply with court order.

    Justice Olatoregun said: “Orders of a court must be always obeyed. He must not show himself to be above the law. Is he too big to appear in court? I give him a week to obey court.”

    In the substantive suit, Iheakam through his counsel, Mr Johnson Esezoobo (counsel to judgment creditor) sought an an order committing to prison, Okhiria and NRC Company Secretary/Legal Adviser, Canise Oklahoma, for alleged refusal to comply with a 14-year-old court order.

    The order, made by Justice Dan Abutu in a suit marked FHC/L/CS/926/95, ordered the NRC to reinstate Iheakam to his employment in the NRC and pay his entitlements.

  • NRC to block illegal level crossings in Lagos – Oche

    The Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) has said that all illegal level crossings within its Lagos District would soon be blocked, to stem incessant accidents.

    Mr Jerry Oche, the NRC’s District Manager for Lagos, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday that efforts had been put in place to block all the illegal level crossings in Lagos, to enhance safety.

    Oche said there were only 26 legal level crossing within the district, adding that many illegal crossings had been created by people which affects the operations of the NRC and was responsible for increased accidents in some places.

    “We only have 26 level crossings in Lagos State, from Ebute Meta here to Ifo Junction (FOJ).

    “But if you have taken a train ride around these places, you will discover more than 26 level crossings.

    “In fact, the number of illegal crossings created by people in various areas triples that of the authorised ones.

    “So what we intend to do is to block the illegal ones because they are another cause of accidents between motorists and our trains,’’ Oche said.

    According to him, the rate of accidents has reduced drastically recently, while the corporation maintains the same number of frequencies daily.

    NAN reports that the Lagos Railway District Manager said recently that proactive measures had been put in place to prevent accidents on rail tracks during the rainy season.

    Oche said that more efforts were in progress by the Lagos district to prevent accidents across rail lines and level crossings in the state.

  • Workers reject FG’s planned concession of railways

    Workers reject FG’s planned concession of railways

    The Nigeria Union of Railway Workers (NURW) has appealed to the Federal Government to withhold its planned concession of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC).

    Mr Segun Esan, the Secretary General of the union, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos that there was no reason to defend privatisation and concessioning as policy of economic development.

    Esan said that concession has simply reinforced underdevelopment, encourage massive unemployment, with massive corruption and social inequality.

    According to him, systems threaten the security and corporate existence of the country since inception of its implementation in the country.

    “The policy has been consistently observed that assets of privatised enterprises have been deliberately undervalued.

    “There has been no due process with high level collusion between the authorities and the companies that bought the privatised enterprises, leading to failure to pay over the appropriate monies to government coffers.

    “The Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) has also failed to exercise its oversight functions on the privatisation process,’’ the unions regretted.

    He described the policy as an abuse of due process characterised by corruption which has affected the outcome of the exercise.

    According to him, the privatisation of the power sector offers another insight into the failure of the system and the fraudulent actions surrounding it.

    Esan said that government has also injected huge capital into the sector without corresponding results.

    He appealed to the federal government to withdraw its planned concessioning of the corporation to help safeguard selling public asset without appropriate technical valuation with labour disengagement.

    NAN recalls that the Federal House of Representatives had at its plenary on Oct. 25, moved to investigate the planned concessioning of the Nigeria Railways Corporation to General Electric (GE) to avoid violating Nigeria’s privatisation laws.

    The lawmakers also looked into the moves by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to concession the Western (Lagos-Kano) and Eastern (Port Harcourt- Maiduguri) rail lines to GE without recourse to the Bureau of Public Enterprises and Privatisation regulations.

    NAN further reports that federal government had constituted a 20-member steering committee on the concessioning of the Eastern and Western lines of the Nigeria Railways.

    The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, inaugurated the committee, headed by the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, in August.

  • NRC rehabilitates 62 coaches, others

    THE Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) has rehabilitated 62 coaches and wagons at its workshops in Enugu and Lagos.

    According to the Managing Director of NRC, Adeseyi Sijuwade, the coaches and wagons, which were reconstructed by direct labour comprised 14 coaches, 30 Covered Hopper Wagons (CHWs) for wheat, 17 container wagons for cement and one power car. They have been deployed to some districts.

    Track rehabilitation is on-going in the Eastern District, he said.

    The coaches are being moved to the mass transit trains in Lagos, Offa-Kano and Lagos-Kano routes.

    Also, about 10 standard class passenger trains have been moved to the Lagos mass transit trains. With this, one mass transit train will carry about 1, 650 passengers at 150 passengers per coach. All the coaches have interior facilities, such as lightings, fans, seats, and toilets.