…Train services resumes today (Saturday)
Following the disruption of Train services from Abuja to Kaduna as a result of the bombing of the rail track by bandits, the Federal Government has assured Nigerians that there would be improved security on the train route.
The Minister of Transportation, Hon. Chibuike Amaechi Minister, who gave the assurance on behalf of the Federal Government during an assessment tour of the train service to ascertain level of damage on the rail tracks owing to attacks by bandits, said plans are underway to digitalize security on the nation’s railway facilities.
Ameachi said that beyond the physical presence of police and the military along this track, the Federal Government will get a rail bus for patrol regularly to monitor happenings even before the train takes off.
He said; “It will be end to end. Apart from this, there has not been any security challenges on this track. What this has done to us is that we would fasten the procurement process of the digital security system that we planned to put in place.
“It has gone to the Cabinet two weeks ago and it has returned. So, we will re-present it to Cabinet to ensure that we get approval for the installation.
“The essence of the digital security system is to enable us to know when there is an impact on the rail to forestall this kind of attack. We will get the Police involved so that they will be here before the installation of the digital facility,” the minister said.
Amaechi explained that even though he may not be happy that the attack occurred, fact has however shown that Nigerian Engineers are now capable of constructing their own railway.
In his words; “I am not happy that the security breach took place, but what it has done is to show that we actually have the capacity to fix our rail.
“The essence of this is to make sure that by the time the Chinese leaves, we should start the gradual process of constructing our own railway.
“The repair was done by our own Nigerian Engineers in record time and by tomorrow (Saturday) we will run the first train,” he enthused.
