•Late former President Buhari and train
The Senate has set up an ad hoc committee to conduct a full-scale probe of all railway projects executed during President Muhammadu Buhari led administration, focusing on project financing, implementation standards, and maintenance practices.
The investigation is to cover the quality of engineering, supervision and maintenance of the project, reports Daily Independent.
This is coming on the heels of concerns by the senators over derailments, vandalism, and mechanical failures along the Itakpe– Warri rail corridor.
In a motion in plenary yesterday, Senator Ede Dafinone expressed concern over the “disturbing and persistent technical breakdowns” on the Warri–Itakpe standard gauge line.
Dafinone recalled that the rail line completed under the Buhari administration had recorded no fewer than ten derailments and several service interruptions between 2023 and 2025.
He said it has become a national concern that the incidents which occurred in quick successions have endangered passengers, undermined public confidence in rail transport, and raised serious questions about the quality of engineering, supervision, and maintenance of the project.
Dafinone urged the Federal Ministry of Transportation and the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to carry out an independent technical assessment of the Itakpe–Warri corridor to determine the causes of the failures and implement corrective measures urgently.
He also called for an on-the-spot oversight visit by the Senate Committee on Land Transport to the affected sections, particularly the Agbor axis in Delta State and the submission of a detailed technical and safety report.
The lawmaker further proposed the establishment of a National Rail Safety and Standards Unit to conduct periodic safety audits, enforce compliance with international best practices, and promote transparency in rail operations nationwide.
He also recommended accelerating the extension of the Itakpe line to Abuja to ease passenger congestion and improve reliability.
Supporting the motion, Abdul Ningi decried the failures as “a national embarrassment that speaks volumes about the inefficiency of those managing the rail sector.
“This is not about politics. The government borrowed billions of dollars to construct these lines, yet they are failing barely two years after completion. We cannot continue to waste public funds and endanger lives because of negligence and mismanagement. Those responsible must be held to account,” he stated.
Supporting his position, Patrick Ndubueze also backed the motion and called for a total overhaul of the NRC, describing it as an agency that had fallen below acceptable operational standards.
“We should reorganise the NRC completely,” Ndubueze said.
“The agency is no longer functioning as it should. Our roads are deteriorating because freight that should move by rail is being moved by road. If we fix the rail system, it will decongest the highways, reduce accidents, and save lives.”
But in his contribution, Solomon Olamilekan Adeola demanded transparency and accountability.
He noted that so much debt was incurred by the Federal Government for the railway project and urged the Senate to determine how much was borrowed and spent, who handled the contracts and whether due process was followed.
According to him, the recurring mechanical and technical faults point to “substandard work or poor supervision during construction.”
He was supported by other senators who added that the investigation be extended to all railway projects executed during the Buhari administration. They argued that the pattern of derailments and failures might not be peculiar to the Itakpe–Warri line but part of a wider problem affecting the entire rail sector.
After an extensive debate, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, commended his colleagues for their contributions and described the motion as “timely and necessary to protect lives, restore service reliability, and safeguard national investments.
“This is not a partisan issue. The derailments began even before this administration took office. We must find out what went wrong — from how the loans were obtained to how the projects were executed and maintained. The Nigerian people deserve answers,” he said.
The Senate thereafter mandated the Federal Ministry of Transportation and the NRC to immediately fix the Itakpe–Warri line, deploy more coaches and raise safety standards.
