A Kaduna-Abuja train was attacked by bandits between Dutse and Rijana stations, as they planted an explosive that damaged the rail track and also opened fire on the driver.
The Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) Fidet Okhiria, has said he can’t confirm that terrorists/bandits attacked its train within the Abuja-Kaduna rail corridor.
In an interview with DailyTrust, Okhiria confirmed that part of the rail track was destroyed and attributed the incident to suspected vandals.
“It’s true our rail track was damaged,” he said, adding that he couldn’t confirm if its a terrorist attack.
He said the track was destroyed by suspected vandals as vandalism of the NRC facilities have been on the increase in recent times.
“So we have issues with the track and we are fixing it. We are working to resume train services and by today’s (Thursday) evening, we should run if possible.
We operated a train from Kaduna to Abuja this morning (Thursday) but we had to suspend operations due to the damaged track until we fix it” he said
He said an investigation is currently being conducted to unravel what happened.