….As Ameachi promises to table it to President Buhari
The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III and the Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal have requested the Minister of Transportation, Mr Chubuike Amaechi to link the State to railway.

The duo tabled the request before Minister and his delegates during a courtesy visit of the Minister to the Sultan of Sokoto and the State Governor in Sokoto Tuesday.

The Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar III also urged the Minister to impress on the government to see to the establishment of railway in Sokoto State.”

Nigeria’s first high speed rails system which connects federal capital city Abuja and northern commercial capital Kaduna begin commercial operations as President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurates operation on July 27. The 186.5 km standard gauge track built by the China Railway Construction Corporation has double lines. The Abuja-Kaduna route has nine stations and the train can travel at up to 150km per hour. AFP PHOTO

The Sultan said the establishment would reduce the burden and damage done on roads. He said: “Please look into the establishment of railway in Sokoto. We want railway extended to Sokoto. “We will help in making a case with the highest office in the land.

“We will not let you rest or sleep until our request is granted because if we have a good rail system, our roads would be much better because most of these heavy loads being transported on our roads keep damaging our roads and I believe railway would take care of that.”

Speaking in the same light, Governor Tambuwal while commending the federal government for hosting the 15th National Council on Transportation, NCT, said an efficient transport sector is critical to the development of the country.

The Governor however urged the federal government to install security scanners at the Sokoto airport. “Our airport is without scanners. I believe that we need some scanners to be installed at the airport for security purposes and to scan luggage or passengers.”

He added, “If they are installed, baggage and passengers would be properly checked and security of lives and property would be more guaranteed”.

Assuring the duo of federal government’s plans to construct rail lines that would link Kebbi, Zamfara and Sokoto States to other states of the federation, the Minister, Amaechi informed them that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the construction of the rail lines to link the three states.

According to him, “The President wants every state to be linked with railway in order to ease the movement of goods and persons in the country and that is why he directed that we link these three states to the rail lines.”

“If this is done, then his mandate of connecting the 36 States of the federation through rail would be achieved.”