A civil society organisation, Alliance for Public Asset Protection and Accountability, APAPA, has petitioned the National Assembly over what it described as a “coordinated and deliberate scheme” to strip the country’s railway system of valuable assets under the guise of scrap sales.
In a detailed petition submitted to Senate and the House of Representatives, the group accused the Minister of Transport, Sa’idu Ahmed Alkali, of conniving with officials of the Railway Property Management Company Limited, RPMCL, and handpicked consultants to unlawfully dispose of railway assets worth billions of naira without proper accountability.
The petition, signed by its president, Dr. Aminu Garba, described the activities of the ministry as a “brazen betrayal of public trust” and called for the immediate sack of the minister.
“We have credible intelligence that the Minister of Transport, in collusion with officials of the Railway Property Management Company Limited (RPMCL), has engaged private consultants to dispose of critical railway infrastructure without transparency or accountability,” the petition reads.
“These so-called consultants are not known to the public service. They were handpicked without competitive bidding, and their sole mission is to oversee the hurried sales of functioning railway equipment labelled falsely as scrap.
“Some of the locomotives and signalling systems being sold were acquired less than a decade ago and are still in good condition. These are not outdated machines — they are valuable assets.
“The buyers are mostly Chinese firms who, in collaboration with insiders, acquire these items at rock-bottom prices and ship them abroad. The Nigerian people gain nothing from these transactions.”
The group alleged that since Alkali’s appointment, the railway sector has recorded no meaningful progress. On the contrary, it said trains frequently break down in remote and dangerous locations, leaving passengers stranded and exposed to security threats.
“Instead of consolidating on the gains recorded under the Muhammadu Buhari administration, particularly in railway modernisation and safety, the current leadership of the Ministry of Transport is singularly focused on self-enrichment and clandestine deals at the expense of national development,” the group noted.
“In the last one year, the rail sector has regressed significantly. Trains now break down mid-journey in the middle of nowhere. There are no new coaches. No investment in safety. No innovation. Only secret asset sales and dubious scrap deals.”
The civic group further alleged that locomotives, steel tracks, signalling equipment, and other high-value railway infrastructure were being sold as scraps to Chinese companies and other private entities without due process or remittance of proceeds into government coffers.
“We find it disturbing that there is no visible reinvestment of proceeds from these so-called scrap sales. The Ministry has failed to provide any financial records showing inflows to the government purse,” the group added.
“Instead of improving rail safety and efficiency, the current administration of the Transport Ministry has made rail travel more dangerous and unreliable. The few trains in operation are poorly maintained and frequently stranded.
“We therefore demand the immediate sack of Minister Sa’idu Ahmed Alkali and a full public inquiry into the activities of the Railway Property Management Company Limited and the consultants involved in these suspicious transactions.”
The group also accused the minister of ignoring existing policies and bypassing the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, and Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, ICRC, both of which are statutory agencies responsible for asset disposal and infrastructure concessions.
“This government cannot afford to look the other way while national assets are looted in broad daylight,” Dr. Garba stated.
In a message directed to the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives, the group urged lawmakers to act swiftly to salvage what is left of Nigeria’s railway sector before it is stripped bare.
The CSO warned that it would mobilise civil society and initiate a nationwide campaign to expose the alleged rot if no action was taken within 30 days.
