Buhari honours Goodluck Jonathan, acknowledges his legacy

President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday honoured former President Goodluck Jonathan and in a seeming acknowledgement of his legacy approved the naming of the Railway Complex in Agbor, Delta State, – the operational hub of the Itakpe-Warri line – after the former President.

Presidential aide, Tolu Ogunlesi, announced the approval on Saturday via Twitter.

Ogunlesi noted that the railway section will now be known as the Goodluck Jonathan Railway Station and Complex; he made reference to the tweet of the Minister of Transport, Chubuike Ameachi.

Minister Amaechi confirmed the renaming station on his tweet, adding that the test-running of the newly renovated rail line’s new coaches is still ongoing.

“Today, we continued test-run of our new coaches on the completed Itakpe-Warri standard gauge rail line. We’ve named the largest station on this route – the Agbor railway facility and station after former President Goodluck Jonathan,” the minister declared. .

The Itakpe-Warri rail line has a length of 276 km and links Warri in Delta State to Ajaokuta in Kogi State.

The rail service has 12 stations with two located between Itakpe, Ajaokuta, and Warri.

Other stations include: Eganiy; Adobe; Itogbo; Agenebode; Uromi; Egehen; Igbanke; Agbor; Abraka; Okpara and Ujewu stations.

The line, which was started in 1987, was built to move iron ore from mines around Itakpe to the steelworks at Ajaokuta but was abandoned for many years.

Former President Jonathan had completed the defeasibility studies on the development of standard gauge rail systems across Nigeria before the 2015 general elections. President Buhari took up the imp[lamentation of the policy from the studies left behind by Jonathan.