30th March, 2022
Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has said he warned that lives would be lost on the Kaduna-Abuja rail line in the eventuality of attack.
Amaechi, who visited the scene of Monday’s tragedy where terrorists attacked an Abuja-Kaduna train, killed some people and held some hostage, said nobody listened to him.
He said he had asked for digital security and crime prevention equipment that could prevent such disaster, but that it was not approved.
The minister said if that equipment had been in place, nobody would be on the rail track.
“Because if we had those equipment, you will see nobody on that track. And I warned that lives will be lost. Now, lives are lost. Eight persons dead, 25 persons in the hospital.
“We don’t know how many persons have been kidnapped. And the cost of that equipment is just N3 billion. The cost of what we’ve lost is more than N3 billion,” he lamented.
Amaechi decried that tracks, locomotives and coaches had been lost, including human beings, adding that ”the equipment is just N3 billion.”
“To fix all the things on that track now, will cost us more than N3 billion. And now even the things we said give us approval to buy – at the time we asked for it, dollar was N400, now it is N500. When you come with sincerity to government and your colleagues and people are stopping you, it is annoying,” he said.