Otunba Rotimi Paseda has called on the federal government to expediate action at revamping the nation’s railway transportation system so as to reduce carnage on Nigerian roads.
Paseda’s call was coming on the heels of the fire disaster which occured last Thursday afternoon at the Julius Berger end of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway in which no fewer than nine people died, while properties worth several millions of naira were destroyed in the inferno.
Paseda in a statement issued in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital by his media aide, Ogbeni Michael-Azeez Ogunsiji, the governorship candidate of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) during the 2015 general elections in Ogun state, emphasized that government should earmark more fund to the rail transportation system in order to avoid a repetition of the disaster.
With specific reference to the on-going rehabilitation of the railways in the South West, the Ogun 2019 gubernatorial hopeful urged the federal government to consider granting expressways in the South West corridors a special attention being the gateway to the nation’s economy.
He passionately appealed to the Muhammadu Buhari led administration to place high premium on transporting fuel for local consumptions through the railway system so as to safeguard the life span of Nigerian roads as well as lives of motorists plying the highways.
While commiserating with families those who died in the inferno as well as those that sustained varying degrees of burns in the incident, Paseda also enjoined officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) to reappraise its enforcement mechanism in order to forestall a repetition of the disaster.
“I am deeply grieved by this shocking, horrid and traumatizing incident which came at a period when the nation is still mourning the Plateau massacre in which over 84 people were gruesomely murdered in cold blood.”
“The fuel tanker fire accidents is becoming too rampant on our highways where hardworking Nigerians have painfully lost their lives and materials acquired by dint of hard work.”
“I am indeed, saddened by this incident. This however, is a wake up call on the federal government to intensify efforts at revamping our railway transportation system. It is high time we return to the old Western system where oil and allied products were transported through the railway. That invariably makes our roads durable and safeguards the lives of motorists on the highway.”
“My prayers go to the families of the deceased. I join in praying that God grants the bereaved families the fortitude to bear their grief as well as speedy recovery for the wounded.”