The minister of transportation Rotimi Amaechi has called on the judiciary to set up special courts for speedy prosecution of thieves of railway parts.
The Minister made the call during an inspection of the Lagos- Ibadan rail ahead of the commissioning.
“we must approach the Judiciary to have courts that can dispense justice readily so that people are sent to jail early enough to deter others and we will also encourage our governors to create jobs.”
The chairman Nigeria railway corporation Engr Ibrahim Alhassan appealed to Nigerians to safeguard public property and to volunteer information on people seen carrying out such acts. According to him ” this is the best thing that has happened to Nigeria, we have to safeguard it”.
The Minister said the Lagos -Ibadan rail project is 90 percent ready and should be commissioned in June.
“We have almost come to the end of construction, there will be a little bit of erection here and there but what started in 2017 or 2018 is coming to a conclusion”.
“The Eleven stations are ready, some of the under passes and some of the over passes are also ready.The bridge at Constain that was demolished has been replace,” he added.
At the apapa axis of the project, it is hoped that connecting all the terminals to the rail will decongest the port.
“There are two challenges they (contractors) are talking about, the first one is a temporary challenge which they think they can resolve it within one month, but the entire thing that will take the rail line into the seaport may take another four months to six months.
“One thing we want to ensure that will happen is the movement of cargo from the seaport, don’t forget that there are two contracts here, first from Ebutte Meta to Ibadan and from Ebutte Meta to Apapa seaport.
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