ne month after the Abuja-Kaduna train attack, Businesses, the Nigerian Railway Corporation has continued to count losses while passengers’ cars have remained at the parking lot of the Idu train station.
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 property.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.
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.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.”
According to Ms Orji, she used to make about N35,000 daily but currently, she struggles to make N10,000. 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.
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. 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.“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.
“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.
No trust in the government anymore now... No one is ready to risk his life