How racketeering, fraud threaten railway’s e-ticketing platform

Most Nigerians preferred land transportation to air and sea modes of movement from one point to the other. But that was then. These days, more Nigerians have a preference for the rail mode of movement. Several factors contributed to why the majority of travellers jettison their once chosen means of transportation.

Lack of sustained infrastructural development, especially roads has left the existing ones dilapidated. Travelling by road became something of an afterthought. This is so because the traumata travellers encounter while journeying to their various destination in their cars are better imagined. They sit in their cars for never-ending hours. The experiences are sickly sweet.

Added to the problem of bad roads that make travelling by land hellishly dangerous is the bourgeoning insecurity in the country; a situation that has encouraged more Nigerians, especially the affluent, to embrace the rail mode of transportation.

Of late, the Federal Government has realised the need to diversify the transport infrastructure by building more roads and rail lines to mitigate the problem associated with land means of transport.

One of the rail lines built by the government is the Abuja-Kaduna train service. This action has resulted in serious passenger traffic. The traffic makes it difficult for passengers to secure seats in the coaches. Securing a seat usually requires the purchase of a ticket which would be shown to the officials at the various stations before one is allowed to board the train.

The high demand for the tickets has created an opportunity for sharp practices at the stations. Some corrupt officials have devised means of selling tickets to desperate passengers at under-the-counter rates. With the fear of abduction, and robbery on the Abuja-Kaduna Highway, and other roads in Nigeria, some passengers have no option than to buy the ticket at exorbitant prices.

There were several complaints in the past by passengers and concerned Nigerians over the hardship most people go through just to get a ticket to travel on the Abuja-Kaduna train service. There were cases of ticket racketeering which were mostly attributed to the members of staff of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) working at the various stations along the route.

The attention of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi was drawn to it and he threatened to sack perpetrators of the act during his unscheduled visits to the stations.

One would have thought that the threat would have reduced the act but the perpetrators seem to always be a step ahead as they have found a way around their fraudulent practice which continues to boom. Following the complaints and continuous practice, the Ministry of Transportation worked with the Nigerian Railway Corporation and decided to introduce the e-ticketing platform as a measure to check and eradicate ticket racketeering practice, and increase passenger fare purchase options.

It was estimated that the e-ticket sale will generate N16 billion by 2029. The late Director-General of Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Chidi Izuwah had said that the sale of an online ticket for train services would hit N16 billion by 2029.

He said: “Financial model shows that NRC and the Federal Government will earn over N16 billion as revenue from e-ticketing by 2029. That will provide additional revenue for the government.”

On the introduction of the online platform, the Minister, a few years ago, said: “I agree that it is a solution to the madness that we have in Rigasa Station down to Idu. It will go a long way to reduce the madness because if people can buy their tickets from their offices and homes, they will not be coming to the train station to cause the chaos we are seeing there.”

In January this year, in response to the yearnings of people, Amaechi launched the N900 million e-ticketing platform of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) and assured Nigerians that the Federal Government would ensure that passengers get a better travel experience from the country’s train service network.

He said: “Today marks the beginning of the automation of ticket sales in all our major stations on the Abuja-Kaduna train service. I believe that deploying the secured ticketing solution is in line with world best practice and will enhance efficiency, save time and promote accountability while also reducing leakages and promoting economic growth.”

Sadly, barely three months after e-ticketing was introduced, it is faced with some challenges. Currently, there are reports of renewed ticket racketeering and fraud.

The Minister, during a world press conference recently, disclosed that those breaching the e-ticketing platform smiled home during the Easter break as they sold tickets at exorbitant prices. He alleged that the perpetrators were conniving with members of staff of the NRC and the SecureID Limited (the company responsible for the e-ticket platform) at the various stations. He expressed fear that if the practice is not checked, it could lead to serious challenge.

The Minister said: “I have consistently said that members of NRC staff would try to breach what we put in place and if they match ID to the purchaser, there will be no problem but when they want to breach it, they don’t ask for ID.

“I heard that they sold the ticket that they bought for N2, 500 during Easter for N10, 000. Imagine what the buyer would have done with N7, 500 if he got to Kaduna with N2, 500. That is quite unfair. They should not bring me back to work at Idu or Kubwa stations, they should not.

“We put a system in place and that is why people need to know that some Nigerians are smart. I don’t know how God gave them that smartness.

“Everybody was shouting electronic ticketing, we have done it and now they are breaching it every day. They buy as many as 10 to 15 tickets and then. I suspect that they compromise our members of staff not to ask for ID because ID is required for you to buy the ticket.

“So, when they buy in bulk, they resell but if the member of staff of the NRC insists that every ticket must match the identity, then they will not do it. We need to understand that the benefit outweighs the disadvantage. The benefit is not just that we are trying to eradicate ticket racketeering, but also security, which is essential.

“A man who may be a bomber may be given a ticket that does not belong to him and he boards and then we are in trouble. So, we must match the ticket with the face carrying the ticket so that we don’t run into security problems.

“I was part of the system that built that structure. If you follow that structure, there will be no ticket racketeering. The only way you can racketeer that ticket is when you buy as many tickets as you want to buy and they don’t match your face to the ticket. Then you can go and the only person who does that is the member of staff of the NRC or member of staff of the company that has the contract. But I have directed the Managing Director of the NRC to fish out the people or person responsible for that.

“Those responsible should either be sacked or thrown out of there because if you have serious people there, there will be no need for this challenge. The reason we have this e-ticketing was that people were compromising at the ticket sale points at the stations and the computer will not compromise.”

The Managing Director of the NRC, Fidet Okhiria said: “Everybody should be happy with the e-ticket platform in the sense that you can, from anywhere, purchase your ticket. But Nigerians are still who they are; they have gone the extra mile.”

On matching names with an ID card, he said efforts have been made and still ongoing to surmount any security breach.

He said: “We have that system in place like we have in the airports to check those boarding and it was deliberate that you cannot buy more than two tickets at a time.

“So, people who complain that they cannot access the platform are those people who enter multiple emails to be able to buy more tickets than it is approved and most times, they forget their passwords. We have traced it from the backend section system of the platform and we found out that people create multiple emails, like 20 to 40 emails to enable them to accumulate the tickets and block others who may want to buy and the system is fighting back.

“So, when you have more than one email on the system and you want to register another one and you cannot access it, you will call me to complain that the platform is blocked.

“We are crosschecking also. We have software called an eraser. It detects some of the fraudulent practices. If someone buys a ticket and he edits the name to match that of the person travelling or the person the ticket is sold to, we have also ensured that if the name does not match the font of the ticket, then he cannot use it to travel. People are not happy with that. “We have problems currently but we meet every week so that we can update it. People should exercise patience because we have people working hard to discredit the system and the government. I promise that we are working hard with the platform provider to ensure that such elements and people are prevented from sabotaging the government’s efforts.”

Analysts argue that with the unsavoury experiences of passengers, it is time the authorities addressed the problems to curb further hardships passengers may go through daily. Also, they believe the perpetrators of the act must be arrested to deter those who may want to cash in on the desperations of travellers. (The Nation)