The Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Engr Freeborn Okhiria, on Thursday says vandals, not bandits, attacked a train service along the Abuja-Kaduna track.
In an interview, Okhiria said parts of the train track were destroyed in the attack.
He said an investigation is ongoing to unravel what really happened on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.
There was panic among passengers on Wednesday evening after an explosion led to the shutdown of the engine of the train. The incident occurred around 8:00pm.
The NRC immediately suspended service on the rail line as a precaution.
“It’s true our rail track was damaged,” the managing director said.
Okhiria said they are working to ensure that the service is restored by Thursday evening (today).
“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,” he said.
“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.