NRC suspends Abuja-Kaduna train operation indefinitely

• Six passengers injured in derailment

The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has suspended the Abuja-Kaduna train service indefinitely.

This followed the derailment of the train yesterday.

The Managing Director of the corporation, Dr. Kayode Olaifa, announced this in Abuja.

The corporation said 618 passengers were on board the train when it derailed near Asham train station.

Opeifa said measures were in place to refund passengers who were on board the train.

The managing director debunked insinuations that the trains were in poor condition.

The Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Hajiya Zubaida Umar, led the agency’s rescue team to the site of a train derailment.

The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has also launched a probe to ascertain the cause of the accident.

An official in NRC told The Nation that the accident may have been caused by vandalism or improper fixing of the point on the tracks.

On the likely cause of the accident, a source in NRC said: “According to an official on the ground at Asham station, the problem occurred at the point in the track. There’s a place where the tracks meet each other. It’s actually at the station. You have line one, line two, and line three.

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“So, they interchange the lines for the train with those points. So, if those points are not properly set and the train goes into it, it will fall. So, either it was vandalised or the point was not properly fixed.

“They are still doing investigations to know whether it was vandalised. One train used it earlier in the morning, so we don’t know whether it was when that train passed that it was vandalised or maybe something else. We don’t really know.

“It could also be caused by the enemy of the state. We don’t know whether it’s the enemy of state or negligence of duty by the officials that are supposed to change the points, because the points are changed manually.”

Opeifa had announced that six passengers were injured in the train derailment.

A statement, posted on the corporation’s X handle @info_NRC, reads: “The Nigerian Railway Corporation confirms a train derailment involving our Kaduna-bound AKTS train service at 11:09 a.m. at KM 49 between Kubwa station and Asham station.

“Emergency rescue, medical personnel, and nearby hospitals have already been mobilised. Full complement of security already on the ground as effort is ongoing to move all passengers on train back to Abuja safely.

“Kindly bear with us at this moment.”