Travellers were reportedly left stranded as a Lagos-bound train develops a fault in the middle of a forest.
According to a tweet on Monday by an eyewitness, Yinka Seth, with Twitter handle @inkaseth, the train which took off from Lagos train station was heading to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital and developed a fault as a result of some steel parts of the rail tracks being removed.
The tweet reads, “My first tweet went out at about 8:12 am. It is now 8:31 am and the train has stopped twice. The current explanation is that some steel parts of the rail tracks have been ‘removed’, that is the thing about bad governance and citizenship. Eventually, e go touch everybody.”
“We are less than 5 minutes from Moniya in Ibadan and the train has halted. Judging by the time stamp of the videos I made, we’ve stopped for 10 minutes without an explanation.
“At 8:29 am, we spotted someone holding a stick. Appeared to either be on a video call or making videos of the halted train. Passengers are tense and it is becoming harder to sit still.”
It further read, “My friends and I are making notes to serve as our will if things go sideways. This is what it means to be Nigerian. You are constantly finding new ways to be in situations that are nothing short of madness.
“8:46 am and train is moving again. Wish us Ijeoma.”
In a chat with our correspondent, Seth said there had been a similar incident a day before (Sunday).
According to him, “The train was heading from Lagos to Ibadan. There had been a similar incident just the day before. Please see my tweets for eyewitness’ accounts.”
“I do not believe a team was sent, that may be due to the fact that my observation only pays regard to my vantage point. However, I did see two armed police officers on board who were active when the train stopped,” he added.
Efforts to reach the spokesperson, Nigeria Railway Corporation, Yakubu Mahmood, proved abortive as of the time of filing this report.
