Tragedy averted as Kano-bound train derails in Osogbo

THERE was confusion in the early hours of Saturday in Osogbo, Osun State, when a cargo train derailed at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, around 1.40 a.m.

Sunday Tribune gathered that the three coaches at the rear of the train detached at Dagbolu, shortly after it left the Osogbo terminus.

The driver was not aware of the mishap until he was radioed in the train, while the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the pilotless wagons lumbered to the interchange at the terminus around Old Garage area in Osogbo, where the wheels got off the track and the wagons tumbled.

Mechanical fault was suspected.

A witness, Mr Biodun Opatoyinbi, said that only one Mr Yakubu, popularly called Baba Ibeji, a train conductor, was in the cargo area.

He was unhurt. “The train driver was later stopped at Offa in Kwara State,” he said, adding that “a man who attempted to offload the goods in the stranded wagons, was arrested and detained by the Nigerian Railway Corporation policemen.

Mrs Iyabo Ogundele also told NAN that the train conductor had been taken to the hospital for proper medical checkup.

Ogundele said a building close to the rail track at the interchange terminal was damaged.

Though no life was lost in the incident,  the detached coaches, conveying  bags of cement, goods and luggage of the commuters, spilled its content when it derailed from the rail track.

A crane and other equipments have been mobilised to the scene to clear rail and evacuate the derailed coaches.

The State Police Commissioner, Mr  Fimihan Adeoye, who spoke through the command’s Public Relations Officer, Mrs Folasade Odoro, confirmed the incident.

The Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil DefenceCorps, Mr BabawaleAfolabi, told NAN that NSCDC officers were keeping watch over the three wagons.