THE CABLE
The fascinating infrastructure of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has been a huge source of relief for most Nigerians who have longed for safe alternative transportation in the country. With the new comfy trains shuttling Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan, Abuja-Kaduna, Warri-Itakpe and the Iddo-Ijoko, most passengers no longer need to undergo strenuous road travels. Hence, the traffic to the train stations, especially the Lagos-Ibadan corridor inaugurated by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2021, has been consistent.
Two years later, the 500-seater train service has become notorious for extortion by its officials. In this investigation, TheCable’s BUSOLA ARO travelled through the Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan corridor where she witnessed extortion and corruption by officials of the NRC.
On September 3, one Boosu Bakope, made a post on X, formerly Twitter, alleging ticket racketeering by officials of the NRC on the Lagos-Ibadan train.
“Hello @info_NRC , your staffs are charging 2k N for a 3k trip from passengers instead of buying ticket. Like half of the passengers inside this coach 8 don’t have ticket. Even the ticket checking agents are all in it. I’m tired of the corruption at every level in this country,” the X user wrote.
I decided to embark on a trip via the train to Ibadan to ascertain the situation.
Travelling by train may not be everybody’s first choice when thinking of visiting Ibadan or Abeokuta; but definitely, everyone desires to travel in a very cosy way.
Catching a train to any of these destinations from the Babatunde Fashola train station in Agege, Lagos state, may not be as easy as it should be for a first-timer.
At exactly 7:00 a.m., I headed to the Agege train station with the hope of boarding a train to Ibadan by 8:20 a.m.
Arriving at the Agege bus stop at exactly 8:10 a.m., just under the bridge, the easiest form of transportation to the station was a motorcycle.
The train station from the bus stop was less than a 10-minute drive. At about 8:15 a.m., I got to the station. Despite arriving at that odd time, people were hurried into one of the offices to grab a ticket.
There are three categories when purchasing a ticket. Depending on where your destination might be, there are different rates for different folks.
To Ibadan, passengers could get a ticket costing N9,600 (first class), N6,500 (business class) and N3,600 (standard class).
Obtaining the first two categories of tickets is likely not going to attract any form of suspicious activity.
However, I observed that not many passengers headed straight to the ticket session to get their tickets to Abeokuta or Ibadan.
Agege train station
From my observation, the ticket room is most times less busy during the weekdays (between Tuesdays and Thursdays).
Meanwhile, the weekend always has an overwhelming crowd. At this time, the crowded activity at the train station may seem ordinary for a first-timer until one takes a closer look.
My findings weren’t far-fetched. It has been noticed by some passengers.
OFFICIALS HELP GOVERNMENT ‘COLLECT FUNDS’
At 8:18 a.m., I was hurriedly given my ticket after paying N3,600. Due to the limited time I had left to get to the train park, I wasn’t allowed to fill in the passe get manifest. Onboarding started at exactly 8:20 a.m. Passengers had waited for the train coming from the Mobolaji train station, Yaba, to pick up its next set of travellers.
At this point, people rushed to get on the train because we had just five minutes to board.
As we moved, I observed that officials of the NRC coordinated passengers’ movement. While boarding, a particular passenger was struggling to make a transfer to one of the officials.
The scenery was that Tomiwa, the passenger, had gotten to the station later than expected.
Narrating his ordeal, Tomiwa said his driver had some issues with LASTMA officials which ended up delaying him. Tomiwa was forced to leave the driver and run down to the station through the back.
“So, when I got here, I just crossed the tracks through the market and came in from the back to save time,” he told me.
“When I got there, I asked one of the representatives to buy a ticket. He agreed. He said I should wait inside the train while he ran to get the ticket and I made a payment to his account.”
Tomiwa had to transfer to Fagbemi Omosaye’s bank account during this engagement.
READ THE FULL STORY IN THE CABLE
