A person simply identified as Saidi, whose marriage is scheduled for Dec. 21, was on Thursday night electrocuted while sitting on a moving passenger-train. The incident occurred while the overloaded Lagos-Ogun train was heading for Iju from Agege, both in Lagos.
Saidi came in contact with an electrical wire that passed through the rail line. He, however, did not die but laid on the top of train, panting, and was brought down at Iju Train Station by several other passengers. The train was delayed at the station to enable the man to be brought down.
Saidi was later rushed to a nearby hospital for medical attention as his face and head were injured. One of his friends, who sat with him on the train, said that Saidi did not know he was close to the electric wire.
The friend, who pleaded anonymity, said he was in charge of distributing some fabrics for Saidi's wedding ceremony. A top official of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) told NAN in Lagos that the management would go to the injured passenger in a medical facility and charge him to court. In line with the official, who did not wish to be identified, it is an offence for an individual to seat on top of a moving train or hang by the sides.
He explained that the offences attracted a term of imprisonment or fine or both. Meanwhile, passengers have continued to blame the NRC's management for hanging and sitting together on top of trains along with congestion of trains. They blamed the situation on the corporation's failure to supply adequate quantity of coaches for its numerous passengers. “The management, though, believes in passengers'safety, lacks utmost respect for them,' 'a lady passenger, Mrs Idiat Hassan, said.
Hassan said that the amount of coaches on the Iddo, Lagos –Ijoko, Ogun route was reducing daily while the amount of passengers increased. Another passenger, Kunle Cole, told NAN that the NRC deployed some trains it used for short distance services for cross country services.
Cole, a medical doctor, said that several train users had collapsed, injured and suffered miscarriages due to congestion.
Also the locomotive on Dec. 9 ran over an infant boy abandoned on a train track between Agbado and Itoki stations in Ogun. Also, on Dec. 6, a night time train crushed a young man, who plugged an earphone while smoking Indian hemp and sitting on a train track at Iju Station.
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