Passengers on a train from Ibadan to Lagos State expressed surprise and outrage after the carriage purportedly ran out of fuel.
This happened on Thursday, according to videos shared online by some of the trapped passengers who were seen sitting on the train track, but the particular location was not provided.
Given that the event occurred at 11 a.m., the train should have arrived in Lagos if it did not stop.
Some people were said to have supplied fuel and replenished the engine in order to get the train moving again after it had halted.
According to an InsightnaijaTV correspondent, the train leaves Ibadan for Lagos at 8 a.m. on weekdays and returns to Ibadan at the same time. On weekends, however, there is a little variance in train departure time and frequency.
Nigerians have reacted to the Thursday event, with one student, Promise Okon, who usually rides on the Lagos-Ibadan train, telling our correspondent that the railway service was getting unstable.
Okon said, ” There is nothing that cannot happen in Nigeria. I have never heard of train running out of fuel. So, fuel scarcity is also affecting train service in Nigeria.
” I hope trains won’t start to suffer flat tyres like vehices very soon.”
Alex Maxwell, a regular passenger on the Lagos-Ibadan train, said the train service has begun to lose its appeal to people just over a year after it began operations.
He said, ” This thing became operational about a year ago and we have started to see all manner of strange things happening.
” Is it not better to return to the road with its attendant risks and troubles? There was a time the train stopped because vandals removed some of the components on the track.
” We need to be more serious in this country but I am not surprised this is happening. But it will be good for our image if we can start to do things the way those in decent climes are doing.
” We copy a lot but unfortunately we don’t copy good things, only the bad things and that’s a pity.”
The Nigeria Railway Corporation denied that the train was stopped because of a lack of fuel, but it did not specify why it was stopped.
The NRC’s spokesperson, Mahmoud Yakubu, called the claim “fake news.”
He said, “That news is completely fake; how will fuel get exhausted in a locomotive? Our services have not been interrupted, train services continue, forget about train stoppage or not, the most important thing is that train services continue. Our train is working perfectly.”
