The Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC, says it has no clue yet on the whereabouts of 176 passengers of the ill-fated Kaduna-bound train eight days after it was attacked by terrorists at about 8.pm on Monday, March 28.
Mr. Fidet Okhiria, managing director of the NRC indicated in a statement on Sunday, that of the 362 validated passengers on board, there was no trace on the whereabouts of 176 passengers as of Sunday, April 3, even as 14 more passengers have been confirmed safe, raising the total number of safe passengers to 186.
”Of the 362 validated passengers on board the attacked AK9 train service on March 28, 186 persons on the manifest are confirmed to be safe and at their various homes (additional 14 persons confirmed safe today),” Okhiria said.
He noted that 51 phone numbers on the manifest were either switched off or not reachable since Tuesday morning and 35 phone numbers on the manifest are ringing, but no response from the other end.
In the same vein, 60 phone numbers on the manifest when called, response non-existent, 22 persons are reported missing by their relatives and eight persons confirmed dead.
According to Okhiria,Two coaches (SP 00016 and SP 00017) earlier re-railed have safely been moved to Rigasa Station.
”This brings the total number of recovered Coaches and safely moved to NRC Stations to be seven.
Intensive work continues on track repairs. More concrete Sleepers were moved to site while some section of twisted tracks has been straightened.
“We remain grateful to the security agencies for all the support. We are very appreciative of the Squadron Commander MOPOL 1 Kaduna visit to the accident site today. The NRC will continue to update the general public of developments to prevent misleading information and falsehood.
”The statement is aimed at updating Nigerians on the on-going development regarding the clearing of the incident site (recovery of the rolling stock, repairs of the track) and status of Passengers that were on-board the AK9 train of Monday, March 28”.
