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In what has been described as a “coordinated and deliberate scheme” to strip the country’s railway system of valuable assets under the guise of scrap sales, the Minister of Transport, Sa’idu Ahmed Alkali, has been accused of selling railway assets.
The allegation is contained in a petition written by a civil society organisation, Alliance for Public Asset Protection and Accountability (APAPA), and submitted to both chambers of the National Assembly.
The group accused the Minister of conniving with Railway Property Management Company Limited (RPMCL) officials and handpicked consultants to unlawfully dispose of railway assets worth billions of naira without proper accountability.
The petition, signed by APAPA president Dr. Aminu Garba, described the ministry's activities as a “brazen betrayal of public trust” and called for the minister's immediate sacking.
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“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 These are not outdated machines — they are valuable assets.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.”
Minister of Transport, Sa’idu Ahmed Alkali
Group says no progress under Alkali’s leadership
The group claimed that the railway sector has made no meaningful progress since Alkali’s appointment. 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.
APAPA 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.
“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 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,” Garba stated.
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In a message to the Senate and House of Representatives leadership, 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 if no action was taken within 30 days, it would mobilise civil society and initiate a nationwide campaign to expose the alleged rot.