Abuja-Kaduna Rail: Passengers confirm bang, but no threat for 4 hours “attacked’ train halted

Commuters on the last  Kaduna-Abuja train o Wednesday have given their accounts of what happened when the train suddenly sopped dead, its engine died, and all the coaches locked up for about six hour.

There have been two accounts so far: by passngers on board the last train Wednesday night, and one passenger on board the second train Thursday morning.

Former NUJ Chairman in Kaduna, Garba Mohammed, who was on the train, said there was anxiety when during the incident, and passengers were only protected few police officers.

According to him, some two substations to the final destination at Rigasa, there was a loud bang first before the train jerked to a halt.

“The lights went off, the AC’s stopped working and we were locked up in the coaches. There was no network, there was no water to drink, people resorted to drinking water from the toilet taps and the toilets became unusable,” he said.

“The security agents asked us to take cover. A few minutes later, the security agents were moving around. We had to open the windows because of the heat and we could see the main road from the track where the train had stopped.”

He explained that there had been security reinforcement from the military who four hours later escorted them to Rigasa train station with a new locomotive.

“The new locomotive was slow and what should have been a journey of 30 minutes took almost 2 hours. By the time we got to Rigasa station, there were a lot of people who were in panic and waiting for their loved ones.”

Mohammed noted “some people said the train was attacked, but there was no threat to us throughout the period we were stranded, which is about four hours.”

“If someone attacks a train and makes it stop for about four hours, then they have enough time to trace the location of the train and attack it, we were at the mercy of a few security officers before the reinforcement came but we were not attacked,” he said.

But former Senator Representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani who boarded the first Abuja-Kaduna train on Thursday the last train on Wednesday was attacked by bandits who planted explosives that damaged the rail track and shattered the windshield of the train engine.

Shehu Sani wrote on his Facebook page that the bandits had opened fire, targeting the driver and the tank. “It happened between Dutse and Rijana stations. The Driver struggled to move towards Kaduna Rigasa station,” he said.

He also stated the train he boarded nearly derailed when it got to the point of attack last night.

Neither the Nigeria Railway Corporation nor the security authorities have made any official clarification.