By Ismail Auwal
The Nigerian Railway Corporation has confirmed the safety of 170 passengers aboard the Abuja-Kaduna train attacked by terrorists last Monday while 21 others were still missing.
Managing Director of NRC, Mr Fidet Okhiria, disclosed this in a statement issued on Sunday in Lagos while providing an update on the incident, which occurred on March 28 in the Kateri-Rijana area of Kaduna State.
He stated that seven coaches had been recovered, and that the Corporation had increased its efforts to restore services.
Okhiria said that the corporation in collaboration with security agencies would leave no stone unturned in its efforts at rescuing the missing persons.
“From the last release, we confirmed that four Coaches (SP 00004, SP00009, SP00012 and SP00013) out of the 11 Coaches involved in the incident have been re-railed and safely moved to Rigasa Station while work is ongoing on track repairs.”
“At the end of work on Saturday evening (02/04/2022) the NRC’s restoration team has further rerailed four more Coaches and two of the coaches (SP 00007 and SP 00013) had been safely moved to Idu and Rigasa Stations respectively.
He noted that the other two coaches are still at the site due to damaged tracks.
“This brings the total coaches so far rerailed to 7, but only 5 successfully moved to the stations.”
“However, efforts are on to link the track, at the moment, a total of 80 meters of the affected section has been fixed including replacement of affected sleepers and twisted rails,” Okhiria said.
He said the Corporation deeply condoles with those who lost loved ones and prays for the repose of their souls.
He said that the management equally sympathised with the injured passengers and indeed everyone on board the AK9 train of Monday 28, for the trauma this unfortunate incident had caused them.
