Abuja-Kaduna train derails two months after resuming operations

A train bound for Abuja from Kaduna derailed in the Nigerian capital on Friday.

However, nobody died from the accident, a train official at the scene, who asked not to be named as he is not authorised to speak on the matter, told PREMIUM TIMES on Friday evening.

He explained that the incident occurred at about 3:15 p.m., about the time the train was supposed to arrive at its destination.

“The derailment occurred close to the station. There were no casualties and all of them (passengers) were able to disembark,” he said.

Explaining how the accident occurred, the official said: “At the moment when the train approached a point when it was supposed to take a turn, it derailed from the rail line.”

He said the cause of the accident has not been established.

There will be no further train travel on the tracks until the derailed train is evacuated, he said.

Another official at the facility who was onboard at the time of the accident confirmed that “Nobody (passenger) is here again. There was no casualty and there is no one at the hospital.”

The accident is happening less than two months after the Abuja-Kaduna train resumed operations.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that on the 28th of March 2022, the Nigerian Railway Corporation suspended the train’s operation due to an attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train which saw the kidnap of over 60 persons and the death of eight people.

It later resumed operations eight months after the incident, on the 5th of December 2022, after those kidnapped were freed.

Thousands of people use the Abuja-Kaduna train daily to commute from the Nigerian capital to neighbouring Kaduna State.