500 People Enjoyed Free-Train Ride To Osogbo At Easter.

Gov. Rauf  Aregbesola

Not less than 500 passengers from Lagos on Friday enjoyed the free-train ride provided by Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, that was packaged by the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC).

Speaking with journalists,some of the lucky passengers commended the governor for availing them another opportunity to celebrate the Easter with their families and beloved ones in Osun.

According to PM News, the present administration has been providing such free rides for indigenes of Osun, during various holidays and festive events, since the inception of his administration.

Moreover, it has always afforded the citizens of Osun living outside the state the opportunity to spend such festivities with their loved ones in Osun.

NAN reports that the free-train ride which departed the Ido Terminus of the NRC in Lagos Mainland, at 1.40 p.m., as against its scheduled time of 11:00 a.m., would stop to drop passengers at various train stations on its route.

The train stations where it was scheduled to pick up more passengers on the route include: Agege, Ijoko, Itori, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Ede, Ikirun. Osogbo and Inisha respectively, before stopping at its destination in Osogbo, where all the passengers are expected to disembark.

The train is expected to return the passengers to Lagos on April 6, for them to return to their various means of livelihood on April 7.

Kayode Odemakin, a civil servant with the Lagos State Government, confessed that he did not believe that the Aregbesola-led administration could provide this train ride at this period, because the state was facing some financial challenges.

“I know that Osun is facing a financial crisis because it had yet to pay their workers’ salaries for some months running.

“I was surprised when l read in the newspapers that it would provide the usual free ride,” he said.

A trader and a mother of four, Felicia Akeju said that this was her first time of enjoying the free-train ride. She commended the Osun State Government, adding  that her children were extremely happy experiencing a ride in the train.

“My children are very happy riding in the train for the first time and also excited that they will be spending their Easter holiday with their grandparents in Osogbo.

“I pray this free ride will be sustained for people to be able to visit their hometowns in future,” Akeju said.

When contacted on phone, Adeseyi Sijuwade, the Managing Director of the NRC, told that although, the train was set to depart as scheduled but the engineers had to put some logistics together to ensure a safe journey.

 

Meanwile, the Peoples Democratic Party has also congratulated Nigerians on the Easter. The party sent a message where it called people to “use the period to imbibe the spirit of love, forgiveness and good neighbourliness especially given the success already achieved by the PDP administration in the fight against terrorism in the land”.