Suspected bandit terrorists have detonated a bomb on the rail track of Abuja-Kaduna train and successfully immobilised the train.
The 6pm train that took off from Idu Train Station at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) hit an explosive device about 30 minutes to Rigasa train station in Kaduna. Sources confirmed the attack on Monday night occurred at a point between Katari and Rijana.
One of the passengers Zainab Sanni confirmed the attackers besieged the train, and shot sporadically. There were hundreds of passengers onboard the train, although their actual number has not been ascertained as at press time. A Facebook user Abdulaziz Musa Alhassan posted that his brother was among the victims shot by the terrorists.
Confirming the incident, Kaduna State Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan said that the military secured the Kaduna-bound train trapped by the terrorists.
He added that acting on distress calls from commuters on the train and the villagers around the axis, ” Relevant action agencies were urgently contacted, and robust deployments of personnel were swiftly made to the area to secure the passengers on board. “
The State government will liaise with the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to ascertain the number of passengers from the manifest for efficient tracking.
Governor Nasir El-Rufa’i who has been in constant touch with the security forces, commended them for their spirited response and thanked them for successfully securing the passengers on board.
On October 20, 2021 terrorists derailed a Kaduna-bound commuter train was attacked for a second time around the now notorious rijana-kateri-jere triangle of death with explosives.
This axis which is now infamous for activities of bandits and kidnappers starts from Rijana, some 35 kilometres after Kaduna to Jere which is about 90 km to Abuja.
The train service which was inaugurated for commercial operations in 2016 had faced the challenges of racketeering which had led to extortion of passengers.
Although the introduction of the e-ticketing platform resolved some of the challenges posed by touts at the train stations, other forms of sharp practices abound.