FG announces resumption of Abuja-Kaduna train services

The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced the resumption of Abuja-Kaduna train services, following improvement in security.

Abuja-Kaduna train services was suspended following the terrorists attack that claimed lives and many others abducted.

The announcement came from the Minister Of Transportation, Mu’azu Sambo on Monday, November 7, 2022, while giving the scorecard of his ministry in Abuja.

The Minister said, the train services will resume this month, adding that adequate security has been put in place to ensure the safety of passengers.

The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) had suspended train service along the route after Boko Haram terrorists attacked a moving passenger train in Kaduna on March 28, 2022.

The insurgents had blown up the rail track and bombed the moving train, killing some and abducting more than 60 passengers. The unprecedented attack had attracted international and national outrage.

The terrorists, who attacked the train in Kaduna, released hostages piecemeal with the last release being on October 5, 2022.

Distraught family members had protested several times to demand the release of their loved ones.

Sambo had said the Abuja-Kaduna rail line will not resume until all those kidnapped by bandits in March are rescued and reunited with their families.

A terrorist negotiator, Tukur Mamu, was on September 6, 2022, arrested in Cairo, Egypt while on his way to Saudi Arabia and returned to Nigeria the next day.

The Department of State Services (DSS) had alleged that Mamu, who negotiated between terrorists and families of kidnap victims, was part of an international terrorist network and used the cover of journalism to perpetrate his deeds.

Popular Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, to whom Mamu is an aide, had faulted the arrest of Mamu.

Gumi had asked the security agency to charge Mamu to court if it had any evidence against him, rather than keeping him in custody.

But the DSS, in its reaction, said it would not be distracted by some skewed narratives in the media and requested to be left alone to concentrate on the ongoing investigations, the outcomes of which it said have remained ‘mindboggling’.