21 Passengers missing, 170 secured, Re-railment of Coaches ongoing -NRC

The Nigerian Railways Corporation says it has commenced moves to re-rail the Coaches affected by the Bomb attack on the Abuja-Kaduna passenger train service.

The Managing Director of the Corporation, Engineer Fidet Okhiria, disclosed this in a Press Statement he personally signed.

Mr Okhiria said the initial suspension of train service was because of the level of damage on the track and in honour of those that lost their lives.

He added that While in this mournful mood, it is also important to inform members of the public and the press about the latest development and what the corporation is doing to restore train services.

The update according to him became necessary so as to prevent the circulation of falsehood or misleading information to the general public.

He said the train that was attacked had eleven (11) coaches worked by Loco 2502, which is made up of four (4) SPA Coaches with 56 sitting capacity per coach and 7 SP Coaches with 88 sitting capacity per coach and that the total seat capacity of the train is 840 seats.

The Passenger manifest of the train however contained 362 validated passengers aboard the train.

The Corporation, in continuation of its concerted effort through repeated calls, has been able to confirm the safety of 170 passengers, while 21 passengers are reported missing by the relatives who made calls to us.

The corporation according to the release is seriously collaborating with the security agencies who had already swung into action, in line with the directive of Mr. President to do everything possible to rescue all those that are still missing.

It added that the NRC is also not resting on its oars as she has moved human and material resources to the accident site to make sure that train services resumed without further delays in other to reduce the stress that passengers are currently going through.

A high powered restoration team, led by Directors have been working round the clock to re-rail the coaches affected by the bomb blast.

The operation to re-rail is a co-ordinated two-pronged simultaneous restoration approach, While Loco 2702 with re-railment and restoration materials departed Idu Station, Abuja to the bomb blast site, another team with Loco 2502 departed Rigasa Station, Kaduna with re-railment and restoration materials to the same site.

At the close of work on the 1st of April 2022, Coaches SP00004, SP00009, SP00012, SP00013 have all been re-railed and safely taken to the Rigasa Station in Kaduna.

Restoration of track for full resumption of normal train services will continue through Saturday 2nd April 2022.Arrangements according to the Corporation have equally been put in place for increased security along the track and on board the train to prevent the recurrence of the unfortunate incident.

The Corporation’s MD condoles with families of those that lost their loved ones and that of those that are still missing and assured that the Corporation is with them in this challenging time.

It would be recalled that on the 28th of March, 2022, suspected bandits attacked the last evening train, AK9 on the Abuja – Kaduna Train Service with explosives, leading to the death of some passengers and destruction of the train and track.
.