Undefined Explosive Device (UED) event in Kaduna, Dutse area, Nigeria on Wed 20th October 2021

The N267m generated monthly from the Abuja-Kaduna railway is now under threat following the decision of the Nigeria Railway Corporation to suspend operations following a bomb set off my bandits along the corridor, The PUNCH has learnt. The Goodluck Jonathan administration had obtained a $500m loan for the construction of the project out of which $150m had already been repaid, according to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi. However, part of the plan of the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), was to use funds generated from the project to offset the loan. The PUNCH learnt that the Kaduna-Abuja railway is currently the largest revenue generating route in the country as it attracts over N267m monthly. The Managing Director, NRC, Fred Okhiria, had revealed in July that the Abuja-Kaduna route generated an average of N265m monthly, Lagos-Ibadan, N17 million monthly, while Warri-Itakpe generated N45m. Okhiria explained that with the introduction of an additional Diesel Multiple Unit, the corporation had increased the number of train trips between Abuja and Kaduna from eight to 10 per day just as the trips on that route had been increased from four to six for Wednesdays. There were also plans to increase the number of goods and passengers conveyed along that but the NRC has halted operations along the Abuja-Kaduna railway corridor due to an explosion along the Rijana and Dutse end of the track in Kaduna State on Wednesday. This comes a month after a leaked memo from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps stated that the Department of State Services had revealed that Boko Haram terrorists are fleeing from Sambisa forest to Rijana Forest in the Chikun local government area of Kaduna State. A former Senator from Kaduna State, Shehu Sani, said on his verified Twitter handle that bandits attacked a train on the Abuja-Kaduna route on Wednesday. Sani said “Yesterday (Wednesday) terrorists attacked the Kaduna-Abuja railway with an explosive and opened fire on the train, targeting the engine driver and the tank. This (Thursday) morning, I was onboard when our train ran over another explosive damaging rail.” The NRC boss, Okhiria, who confirmed the blast to The PUNCH, said on Thursday that services on the route had to be halted in order to carry out thorough investigations on the matter. He, however, promised that services would be restored soon. He said, “There was an explosion but until the team that is investigating the matter comes with its report we cannot confirm whether it is a bomb or not. But there was a blast. “Operations have been stopped for today in order to do proper inspection and we hope that before the end of the day we would have done the needful.” Okhiria, however, refuted claims of gunshots aimed at the train driver and the tank of the train.