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| Minister of Transportation Mu’azu Sambo |
The Abuja-Kaduna Rail route will resume train service in November, according to Mu'azu Sambo, the minister of transportation.
While delivering President Muhammadu Buhari's ministerial scorecard for the period of 2015 to 2022 to press in Abuja, Mr. Sambo made this announcement.
“This month of November, we shall resume that service,” he said. “Remember, I told you, for those of you who are reporters from the statehouse, that we will not resume this service until every Nigerian held in captivity is reunited with their families.”
Services along the route were shut down following a terrorist attack on the train and its passengers on March 28.
This led to the kidnap of passengers and the destruction of trains and rail tracks along the route.
The federal government secured the release of the remaining 23 kidnapped hostages in October and promised to resume services on the route after adequate security measures were put in place.
The minister, who described the incident as a sad one, said the government had learnt its lesson from the attack.
“What are the lessons, safety and security surveillance, constant monitoring 24/7 and 7 days a week, 12 months a year, all around the clock?
“The minister should be able to sit in his office and look at the rail corridor and see what is happening there.
“The president should be able to do that. The director-general of the State Security Service (SSS) should be able to do that, and so on and all other security agencies.
“These are the measures we have put in place. Nobody will again shave our heads behind our backs.”
(NAN)