…puts number of dead passengers at 8, with 22 missing
As many as 146 of the 362 passengers who were on the Abuja-Kaduna train that was attacked by bandits remain unreachable six days after the incident, the Nigerian Railway Corporation has said.
The Managing Director of NRC, Mr Fidet Okhiria disclosed this known in a statement on Monday.
Mr. Okhiria announced, however, that the number of safe passengers had risen to 186.
He said that 51 phone numbers on the manifest are either switched off or unreachable since Tuesday morning, while 35 phone numbers on the manifest are ringing, but no response from the other end.
He added that 60 phone numbers on the manifest when called, responded non-existent.
He further clarified that 22 persons are reported missing by their relatives while eight persons were confirmed dead.
The statement reads: “51 phone numbers on the manifest are either switched off or have not been reachable since Tuesday morning and 35 phone numbers on the manifest are ringing, but no response from the other end. 60 phone numbers on the manifest when called, responded non-existent.
“The statement is aimed at updating Nigerians on the ongoing development regarding the clearing of the incident site (recovery of the rolling stock, repairs of the track) and status of Passengers that were onboard the AK9 train of Monday, March 28.
“Of the 362 validated passengers on board the attacked AK9 train service on March 28, 186 persons on the manifest are confirmed to be safe and at their various homes (additional 14 persons confirmed safe today).
“Two coaches (SP 00016 and SP 00017) earlier re-railed have safely been moved to Rigasa Station.
“This brings the total number of recovered Coaches and safely moved to NRC Stations to be seven. Intensive work continues on track repairs. More concrete Sleepers were moved to site while some section of twisted tracks has been straightened.
“We remain grateful to the security agencies for all the support. We are very appreciative of Squadron Commander MOPOL 1 Kaduna’s visit to the accident site today.
“NRC will continue to update the general public of developments to prevent misleading information and falsehood.”
NRC announced an indefinite suspension of train services on the Abuja-Kaduna route following the attack. The attack came about two days after bandits attacked the Kaduna International Airport, where they killed an aviation officer and prevented a Lagos-bound aircraft from taking off.
