Train Operations Resume as Railway Workers Suspend Strike

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Nigeria Union of Railway Workers has suspended a three-day warning strike, which it declared on Thursday to demand improved welfare.

Consequently, train operations earlier suspended over the railway workers’ strike have resumed across stations in the country.

The Managing Director of Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Mr. Fidet Okhiria told NAN that the Abuja-Kaduna train operations resumed at 9:15 a.m. on Saturday.

However, after a meeting involving the federal ministry of transport and the management of the NRC, the strike was suspended on Friday.

According to a communique announcing the suspension of the strike, among other agreements reached at the meeting, it was agreed that a committee would be set up to review the conditions of service for railway workers.
In Abuja the nation’s capital, prior to calling off the strike, workers in Idu had locked the station and displayed various placards in protest.

Aggrieved workers were also seen at the Mobolaji Johnson Train Station in Ebute-Metta in Lagos, with placards, lamenting poor welfare and poor salary.

Train service at the Professor Wole Soyinka railway station in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital was equally paralysed because of the industrial action.

The railway terminus was deserted as workers abandoned their duty posts.
No passenger was also seen around the passengers’ lounge areas as they were under lock and key.

The NRC employees under the aegis of the Nigerian Union of Railway Workers had on Wednesday vowed to halt train operations nationwide including services on the popular Lagos-Ibadan, Abuja-Kaduna, and Warri-Itakpe routes.

But after separate meetings with the Nigeria Railway Corporation Board in Abuja and other stakeholders in Lagos on Friday, the railway workers were thereafter directed to resume work “with immediate effect.”