By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has directed the Nigerian Railway Corporation to go after vandals and buyers of rail equipment.
Amaechi stated this on Friday at Ibadan during his inspection tour of the Lagos-Ibadan rail corridor.
He said sellers and buyers of stolen rail items must be made to face the music because in his word, “when there is no demand, there will be no supply.”
“I don’t know why some Nigerians are like the way they are. I have told the Managing Director of NRC to arrest the buyers of the equipment. It is not enough to arrest the vandals.
“It is likened to those who said why should the National Assembly punish those who pay ransom. That law was first passed by the Rivers State House of Assembly when I was a speaker and the reason is, that, when there is no demand, there will be no supply.
“If we don’t pay ransom, they will be tired and they will stop. The same way, if they don’t buy those metals, nobody will steal them.
“We must approach the judiciary to have court 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.”
Meanwhile, Amaechi assured Nigerians that the project will be ready for commissioning for in his words, all the 11 stations along the route are 80- 90 per cent completed. The Minister added that in the next two weeks, the projects would have been completed.