An Abuja-bound train from Kaduna has reportedly derailed at Jere, the Kagarko Local Government Area of the state, with dozens of passengers and security agencies on board.
The incident occurred about an hour after the train departed its Rigasa station in Kaduna at about 8:05 am, on Sunday.
There are at least three carriages off the tracks with ongoing efforts to resolve the situation, Daily Trust reports.
However, efforts to reach the Abuja-Kaduna Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) Regional Manager, Paschal Nnoli on further details of the incident proved abortive.
As of press time, Nnoli has yet to reply to the text and calls placed on his phone.
Aside from the terror-inflicted incident of March 28, 2022, and the concerns about the safety of passengers along the Abuja-Kaduna railway, vandalism remains the top problem the NRC has yet to tackle.
In August 2023, Nnoli told THE WHISTLER that the NRC is battling vandalism across the nation’s railway track assets.
He said what will ordinarily take the train less than two hours between Kaduna and Abuja has been extended to about three hours because train drivers go at a slower pace to avert dangers on the rail track caused by vandals.
“Signals are being vandalised nationwide by Nigerians and these things exist in communities,” Nnoli noted, with rising concern that the successive removal of clips holding the tracks alongside other assets could “lead to derailment and people would die.”
This menace has persisted despite efforts by the Nigeria Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) alongside other security agencies to quail vandalism and all forms of insecurity across the nation’s railway infrastructure.
On Friday, the NSCDC arrested three suspected dealers belonging to a syndicate, who specialised in dealing in scrap metals suspected to be railway lines and slippers in Aba, Abia State.
Earlier in March, four suspects with a heavy-duty open truck laden with vandalised railway slippers also in Jere were arrested by the corps.
Preliminary investigation showed that the suspects disconnected and damaged the railroad and further converted the Railway slippers to their personal property by loading large quantities from Kachia town in Kaduna to supply their business partners in Ilorin, Kwara State.
JUST IN: Passengers Escaped Death As Abuja-Kaduna Train Derails In Jere is first published on The Whistler Newspaper