The Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) Mr Fidet Okhiria on Thursday confirmed that a portion of the Kaduna-Abuja train tracks were blown up by yet to be identified persons on Wednesday night.
He however said efforts are in top gear to restore train service along the route, assuring the Corporation’s numerous customers that there would be train service on the route on Friday.
Okhiria said the explosives had damaged the rail tracks somewhere between Dutse and Rijana and efforts are in top gear to replace the destroyed tracks for service to be restored.
Okhiria said: “Yes, an explosive went off on our rail track somewhere around Rijana and Dutse last night, and this damaged the tracks.
“Efforts are currently ongoing to ensure that the train services along the Kaduna-Abuja route are fully restored, and by Friday normal operation on that route would resume,” he said.
When asked if there were gunshots aimed at the train driver and the tank of the train, the NRC MD stated that “There was nothing like that. Only an explosive that went off on the track. He said the affected locomotive have been driven to the corporation’s workshop for repairs and would be back in use soon.
He said the corporation ran a train service on the route this morning “to assure Nigerians that the damage was not capable of disrupting the corporation’s operations.
“Are you aware that we even ran a train service this morning? There was nothing like shooting on the train by bandits. Efforts are currently ongoing to ensure full train services are restored along that route and we assure Nigerians that normalcy would be restored on our operations by Friday,” Okhiria said.