The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi on Friday dispelled reports that some unidentified armed robbers attacked passengers on the Abuja –Kaduna standard rail line on Tuesday, March 6 at Rigasa community, assuring that adequate measures had been put in place to ensure the safety of passengers and their belongings.
The Minister made the disclosure in an interview with newsmen in Abuja. He explained that the Ministry had made arrangement for the presence of armed Policemen and wondered how such incident could occur with the Presence of armed guard on board.
“I saw one fake news that armed robbers attacked the Abuja-Kaduna rail line, which is not correct, Nigerians on their own fabricated the story. On every Coach, we have armed Policemen, how can armed robbers attack the rail line? it’s very possible in the station, but it cannot happen while the rail is going and they said it happened in Rijana community.
“So, what we have done in the rail, we have provided security to make it easy for those who are travelling from Kaduna to Abuja to have cheaper and easy form of transportation, “ he added. The Deputy Director, Public Relations, Mr. Yakub Mahnood who also spoke to newsmen said;
“NRC management in order to allay the unfounded fears of our esteemed passengers after the reported incidence of miscreants along Abuja-kaduna railway corridor engaged in an unwholesome act of stoning our passengers’ train, as against the unsubstantiated and purported media report of attack by gunmen.
This does not constitute security threat to the operation of the train service, along the Abuja-Kaduna-Abuja route. It is a deliberate attempt by unpatriotic individuals to damage Federal Government asset and property. The train is provided to alleviate the transportation problems being faced by Nigerians across the country, besides being a source of employment to the people residing in the environment. “
He appealed to stakeholders to sensitize their wards against stoning moving trains.
