The Senate has constituted an adhoc committee to conduct investigation into former President Muhammadu Buhari’s railway projects.
The probe will cover the quality of engineering, supervision and maintenance of the project.
In a motion in plenary on Tuesday, Senator Ede Dafinone expressed concern over the “disturbing and persistent technical breakdowns” on the Warri–Itakpe standard gauge line.
He recalled that the rail line completed under the Buhari administration had recorded no fewer than ten derailments and several service interruptions between 2023 and 2025.
According to him, it has become a national concern that the incidents which occurred in quick successions have endangered passengers, undermined public confidence in rail transport, and raised serious questions about the quality of engineering, supervision, and maintenance of the project.”
He urged the Federal Ministry of Transportation and the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to carry out an independent technical assessment of the Itakpe–Warri corridor to determine the causes of the failures and implement corrective measures urgently.
He also sought on-the-spot oversight visit by the Senate Committee on Land Transport to the affected sections, particularly the Agbor axis in Delta State and the submission of a detailed technical and safety report.
He further advocated the establishment of a National Rail Safety and Standards Unit to conduct periodic safety audits, enforce compliance with international best practices, and promote transparency in rail operations nationwide.
He also suggested accelerating the extension of the Itakpe line to Abuja to ease passenger congestion and improve reliability.
Supporting the motion,
Abdul Ningi, who supported the motion, decried the failures as “a national embarrassment that speaks volumes about the inefficiency of those managing the rail sector.”
“This is not about politics. The government borrowed billions of dollars to construct these lines, yet they are failing barely two years after completion. We cannot continue to waste public funds and endanger lives because of negligence and mismanagement. Those responsible must be held to account,” he stated.
Patrick Ndubueze also backed the motion and called for a total overhaul of the NRC, describing it as an agency that had fallen below acceptable operational standards.
“We should reorganise the NRC completely,” Ndubueze said. “The agency is no longer functioning as it should. Our roads are deteriorating because freight that should move by rail is being moved by road. If we fix the rail system, it will decongest the highways, reduce accidents, and save lives.”
In his contribution, Solomon Olamilekan Adeola demanded transparency and accountability.
He noted that so much debt was incurred by the Federal Government for the railway project and urged the Senate to determine how much was borrowed and spent, who handled the contracts and whether due process was followed.
The recurring mechanical and technical faults, he said, point to “substandard work or poor supervision during construction.”
Other senators added that the investigation be extended to all railway projects executed during the Buhari administration.
They maintained that the pattern of derailments and failures might not be peculiar to the Itakpe–Warri line but part of a wider problem affecting the entire rail sector.
President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio commended his colleagues for their contributions and described the motion as timely and necessary to protect lives, restore service reliability, and safeguard national investments.
“This is not a partisan issue. The derailments began even before this administration took office. We must find out what went wrong—from how the loans were obtained to how the projects were executed and maintained. The Nigerian people deserve answers,” he added.
The Senate mandated the Federal Ministry of Transportation and the NRC to immediately fix the Itakpe–Warri line, deploy more coaches and raise safety standards.
It also directed the Senate Committee on Land Transport to conduct a full-scale probe of all railway projects executed during the Buhari administration, focusing on project financing, implementation standards, and maintenance practices.
