AGBOR — A horrific Monday afternoon unfolded for commuters along the Warri–Itakpe Train Service (WITS) corridor as an passenger train derailed near Agbor, Delta State, leaving three passengers dead and several others nursing varying degrees of injuries.
The incident, which occurred on Monday, June 8, 2026, saw four fully loaded passenger coaches violently decouple and slide off the tracks into the surrounding vegetation. The impact left commuters trapped inside shattered hulls and threw the immediate community into a frantic rescue operation before state emergency services arrived.
Chaos on the High-Speed Line
According to eyewitness accounts from surviving passengers, the train was traveling at its standard operating speed when a sudden, violent shudder ripped through the coaches. Within seconds, a deafening screech of grinding metal filled the air as the rear coaches lost contact with the rails.
“We just heard a massive loud bang from the back,” recounted Eseoghene Akpobome, a passenger who escaped from the third coach with minor cuts.
“People began screaming as the coach tilted violently to the side. Luggage was flying everywhere from the overhead racks, hitting people on the head. By the time the train finally ground to a halt, the windows were broken, dust was filling the air, and we could hear people crying out for help from the coaches behind us that had rolled off entirely.”
Local youth from the nearby Agbor community were the first responders on the scene. Armed with axes, iron rods, and bare hands, they broke through the reinforced glass windows of the derailed coaches to pull out dazed and bleeding passengers. Tragically, three individuals—two men and a woman—sustained fatal crush injuries as the structural framing of one of the flipped coaches collapsed inward. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
NRC Confirms Casualties, Orders Full Investigation
In a swiftly issued statement on Monday night, the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) formally confirmed the derailment and the attendant loss of life. The statement, signed by the newly appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the NRC, Dr. Kayode Opeifa, expressed deep condolences to the families of the victims.
“The Nigerian Railway Corporation confirms that a serious train accident involving the Warri–Itakpe Train Service (WITS) corridor occurred today at Agbor, Delta State,” the statement read. “Rescue and emergency response operations were immediately activated. Regrettably, we have confirmed the loss of three lives. Four coaches left the rail track during the incident, an occurrence referred to in railway operations as a derailment.”
Dr. Opeifa added that emergency response teams, alongside federal and state medical authorities, had effectively evacuated all remaining passengers from the site. The corporation has launched an immediate technical investigation to isolate the exact cause of the mechanical failure, promising to keep the public abreast of any new findings as they emerge from the structural assessment.
