Train Attack: One month after, NRC, businesses count losses, passengers’ cars remain parked

One month after the Abuja-Kaduna train attack, Businesses, the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has continued to count losses while passengers’ cars have remained at the parking lot of the Idu train station.

According to a security man at the station’s motor park, the owner of one of the cars was confirmed dead by his family members who came to claim the car, but the other cars have yet to be claimed.

The car was later claimed by the brother of the deceased after the police at the train station confirmed this.

Another officer who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES told this reporter that the cars parked in the lot belonged to passengers who are not amongst those kidnapped.

However, Pascal Nnorli, in the train service, told this newspaper that the NRC is more concerned with persons who are in captivity than it is about cars. He added that the car park is, however, not their (NRC) property.

The ever-busy station was deserted when PREMIUM TIMES visited on April 14 and 27.

The shutdown of the station has caused a fall in the income of different groups who work there. But employees of the NRC continue to receive their salaries.

“Those who work at the motor park, people selling food, the potters, they are the ones directly affected by the situation,” an NRC official told PREMIUM TIMES.

Blessing Chigozie, a food vendor at the station, told this newspaper that since the unfortunate incident, her sales have taken a nosedive.

“Now we are not selling like before; I only come because of my colleagues who still have to work,” she said.

According to Ms Chigozie, she used to make about N40,000 a day. But since the shutdown of the station, she has struggled to make N5,000 a day.

“I dey feel bad, I dey feel for them. Some of my colleagues are among those kidnapped,” she added.

Rita Orji, a student who helps her aunt sell food at the Idu train station, said, “it has been really bad for us, this is our only means of surviving and since the attack, it has been really hard.”

Ms Orji and her aunt who would usually sell every food they make, now has to return home with some from the small quantities they now make.

The food vendors are not the only ones affected, potters who make little change from helping passengers carry their luggage are affected as well.

“If not for the attack, on a daily basis, this place used to boom but now, everywhere is empty,” she said.

According to Ms Orji, she used to make about N35,000 daily but currently, she struggles to make N10,000.

“The day of the attack, this place was like a graveyard. My aunt was crying because she knew someone on the train who got shot,” she said, describing events that happened at the station on the day of the attack.

When asked if the traders at the station pay any levy to NRC or the government, Mr Nnorli said, “the land where they do their business is not NRC’s land, no one collects any money from them. If they are paying money to anyone, it is not the NRC.”

This was corroborated by one of the vendors at the station.

Train attack

A few days after the train attack, a video surfaced online of kidnapped passengers begging the government to cooperate with the kidnappers who claimed they did not want money.

An NRC official, who asked for anonymity because he did not have permission to speak to the media, said he identified five members of the train crew from the video, including the locomotive driver and an official whom he identified as Sani Abdullahi.

Another NRC official told this newspaper that the work of the technical crew fixing the rail tracks was being interrupted by the terrorists.

“Every two days, the crew fixing the rail line have to run away and return because of the bandits,” the official said, asking not to be named.

He, however, said the agency was committed to fixing the track so the train can commence operations again.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that soldiers and police officers have now been deployed to Rijana to secure the technical crew of the NRC undertaking repair works on the rail line and coaches.

Surveillance equipment or not

When the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, now a presidential aspirant, visited the scene of the attack, he told journalists that the attack could have been averted if surveillance equipment he proposed to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had been installed.

The minister said he had proposed to the FEC the need to procure the equipment to forestall attacks on the infrastructure but it was rejected by his colleagues.

An NRC staff member told PREMIUM TIMES that the minister’s suggestion will not be the solution to the problem at hand as there are many ways to stop a moving train.

“The place where the train was attacked is a known hotspot. I think there is a need for permanent military presence because the first attempt was there and now this,” he said, adding that “even people kidnapped on the road, that is the same route they pass.”

He also advised that the trains should stop running at night, adding that the government should consider building alternative rail tracks.

But for Wilson Ijide, a retired colonel, request for surveillance is in order not just for Abuja-Kaduna railway line but a very necessary requirement in fighting insecurity at large.

“Surveillance only provides early warning, and does not necessarily deter attacks. It must be deployed in combination with a ready force that can provide quick response to prevent likely attacks and in pursuit of fleeing criminals or terrorists,” Mr Ijide said.

He noted that the problem with the minister’s request is that it was not done with due diligence.

“It is not enough to procure surveillance devices, their functionality, cost effectiveness, and security must be factored into the request.”

This is where the request was reported to be lacking in integrity, he noted.

According to the retired colonel, the best solution is a rapid response force that responds to any threat. He suggested a combination of surveillance devices, which could be both human and technological along the corridor.

“Nigeria appears to be lacking in that capacity at the moment. It calls for rejigging of Nigeria’s security architecture through decentralisation of the omnibus federal police, improved training and equipment,” he said, adding that this has been emphasised overtime but the government ignored the suggestions.

Conflicting numbers

There has been controversy on the number of passengers who were on board the train when it was attacked on March 28.

When the news broke, Daily Nigerian reported that 970 passengers were on board the attacked AK9 train; the NRC and the ministry of transportation, however, gave the number as 398 with only 362 boarding the train.

Further confusing figures have emerged as PUNCH quoted the Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency (KADSEMA) as saying, “369 victims were called and offered opportunities for psychological support, 264 persons accepted the offers and were supported.”

According to other reports, about nine persons have died as a result of the attack and over 100 passengers are still being held by the kidnappers.

Some frequent users of the train, who do not want to be named, insist that the manifest cannot be trusted as some names did not make it to the manifest because of the way some passengers acquire their tickets.

An NRC official insisted that the figure given is accurate.

“It was a Monday; that number of people could not have been travelling from Abuja to Kaduna; you only find that number of travellers on Friday because most people go home for the weekend.”

A press release issued by the managing director of NRC, Fidet Okhiria, said “the Ak9 service is the last service out of Abuja on a Monday evening and is usually at less than half capacity.”

He gave the total sitting capacity of the train to be 840.

All four passengers who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES said even though passengers purchase train tickets through a mobile application or over the counter at the station, louts still sell tickets at the station to travellers who are unable to purchase through the known means.

READ ALSO: Kaduna Train Attack: Abducted passenger gives birth in captivity

“Once I was travelling to Kano for Sallah through Kaduna, I was late to the train station and did not have a ticket. When I got here, I saw a guy who was being followed by a number of people; when I waved at him, he signalled me to come over. He gave me a ticket, paid and got me into the train, I did not have to get to the counter,” one of them said.

Another traveller, Chisom Udeoba, said she was trying to verify issues with a ticket she purchased on the application when someone at the station asked if she wanted to purchase a ticket.

“Ticket racketeering is a normal thing. Some people are positioned around the station, it is their business,” another said.

Ali Yaqub said he once bought from a traveller who was no longer traveling.

“I did not bother to ask. I bought it online, N3,000,” Mr Yaqub said.

Family of victims devastated, ‘government doing all it can’

While families of kidnapped victims are devastated and in anguish, the federal government said it is doing all it can to secure the release of the victims.

Imran Ahmad, whose brother is with the kidnappers, told this newspaper he was allowed to speak to him two weeks ago but it left him even more devastated as they asked for nothing.

“They let me speak with him but did not ask for ransom,” he said.

Sani Othman, whose younger brother Hassan Othman and sister in-law Amina Jibril, are also in captivity said, “you cannot imagine what we are going through, our aged parents and all.”

According to Mr Othman, he spoke with his brother two days after the attack but since then has not heard from him again.

“When he called, he said this is Hassan, we are in the bush. Please cooperate with them and give them whatever they want please,” Mr Othman said, recounting the conversation with his brother.

Since that call, there has been no communication with the kidnappers as to what they want.

Mr Othman told this newspaper that other families are, however, getting calls to pay N100 million for their family members held captive.

He also said there has been no communication from the government at any level.

However, the Kaduna State government approved the sum of N18 million for disbursement to families of nine persons killed in the train attack.

How the disruption will affect loan repayment

Experts opine that the train service was never run such that it could help service the loan used in erecting the structure.

Tope Fasua, an economist said, “the project is still being used as a cash cow by unscrupulous Nigerians. It does not look like the government wants to run the rail system in a way that the proceeds help somewhat in repaying the loans for that project.”

He said proceeds from ticket sales are infinitesimal compared to the borrowing, adding that it is a global practice that governments should run the rail system with some subsidies to help people get around.

On the uncertainty about the number of persons aboard the train, he said it signifies a lack of risk management, not only to protect those who use the train, but to prevent huge losses or capture the market better.

According to Railway Technology, the estimated cost of the Abuja-Kaduna rail project built by China Civil and Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) was about $874million.

China‘s EXIM bank provided $500 million as a concessionary loan for the project while Nigeria’s government provided the balance.

The loan from China’s EXIM bank is due to mature in September 2030 with a 2.5 per cent interest rate.

Another expert, who did not want to be named for fear of victimisation, said “we (Nigeria) were never going to be able to pay back the loan, the disruption only worsened the situation.”

He noted that the amount charged on train tickets showed from the onset that the operations of the railway cannot service the loan, “it was a drop in the ocean.”

Chiamaka Okafor is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.