The Lagos District of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) on Monday said it had arrested no fewer than 100 miscreants fond of riding on the rooftops of its Mass Transit Shuttle Trains in Lagos and Ogun States.
The NRC District Manager in Lagos, Mr. Jerry Oche, disclosed this while addressing newsmen in Lagos.
He said that the hoodlums were arrested by a combined team of the Railway Police, the Lagos State Police Command, the NRC Task Force and Man-O-War personnel.
Oche said that the miscreants had constituted a nuisance to the corporation’s mass transit shuttle service in Lagos and Ogun States, causing harm and injuries to innocent passengers.
According to him, the miscreants, last Tuesday, caused mayhem at the Agege station and the development led to reprisal attacks from the people, which affected the operations of the corporation.
“We want to first apologise to our customers. Nov. 1 was tough for us due to the nefarious activities of the miscreants.
“The hoodlums attacked and destroyed some of our facilities. Ikeja station was seriously damaged, same at the Agege station and our police station.
“This morning, we decided to embark on a raid and we arrested about 100 hoodlums, riding on the rooftop of moving train at the Iju station.
“These people enter the trains with matchets, stones, sticks, knives and other harmful objects.
“These hoodlums sell drugs and do a lot of criminal activities. We can’t fold our hands to allow this to go on,’’ he said.
Oche said that a baby, backed by her mother, was stoned in the process and died in one of the attacks that led to the suspension of our services at Agege and Ikeja.
According to him, the death of the baby angered residents of Agege, who staged another round of attacks on the rooftop riders.
He said that the safety and security of passengers is paramount to the corporation and this had made the NRC redesign the windows of the trains.
Oche, who said that the raids would be a continuous process, added that the corporation would increase its police posts and the security personnel, to ensure the safety of all passengers and NRC personnel on the trains.
