The Nigeria Union of Railway Workers on Monday said that a lack of locomotive engines was responsible for the inability of the Nigeria Railway Corporation to deliver optimum services.

The union in a statement signed by its General Secretary, Mr. Sesan Esan, in Lagos said that the corporation did not have up to 30 working locomotive engines.

According to the statement, the corporation is lacking passenger coaches and wagons for goods to meet the growing demands of the public.

The union said that President Muhammadu Buhari should take the anti-corruption campaign to the railway sector to track stolen funds.

“It will be good that the gain of the anti-corruption campaign is invested in the railway to reverse the infrastructural deficiency in the rail transport system.”

The statement urged the federal government to come up with a realistic long-term development plan that would be followed in the sustainable development of the nation’s rail transport system.

It said that a well-developed and effectively managed railway would reduce carnage on the roads, strengthen the integration of the nation and stimulate socio-economic growth.

The statement further called on Buhari to appoint a technocrat as transport minister, who would help in the sustainable development of the transport sub-sector.

It said that workers were expecting a technocrat who understood the economic importance and relevance of the rail transport system to the development of the nation. (NAN)

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