Train attack: 7 crew members missing as NRC records N80m loss

On Tuesday, April 05, 2022, the Nigerian Railway Corporation said seven crew members who boarded the AK9 Abuja-Kaduna train that was attacked by terrorists on March 28, 2022, are unaccounted for.

The body added that it had still not been able to establish contact with 163 passengers.

The NRC’s Managing Director, Fidet Okhiria, disclosed this in the sixth update from the corporation with respect to the train attack.

On the crew members in the train, the NRC boss said, “There were a total of 20 train crew on board. Seven (are) NRC staff, five are okay and two are missing.

“10 janitors, six are okay, three missing and one dead. Of the three onboard caterers, one is okay and two are missing.”

Okhiria further noted that one of the coaches (SP 00020) was re-railed and safely moved to Rigasa Station.

“This brings the total number of recovered coaches and safely moved to the NRC stations to eight,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has lost about N80m as a result of the suspension of operations of the Abuja-Kaduna train service after the facility was bombed by terrorists.

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, had stated in December last year that the Abuja-Kaduna train service was generating at least N300m monthly.

This implies that the service should be making about N10m daily, going by an average of 30 days in a month.

Hence, the government has lost about N80m as a result of the halt in the operations of the service since the incident occurred.

On March 28, 2022, suspected bandits attacked the last evening train, AK9, on the Abuja-Kaduna train service with explosives, killing 8 passengers, injuring some, and abducting others. The attack also lead to the destruction of the train and track.