By Ignatius Ushie
Minister of Transportation Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi has reassured Nigerians that there would be improved security on the Abuja/Kaduna train route.
The Minister who stated this at an on the spot assessment visit to the sight of the attack, adding that plans were underway to digitalize security on the nation’s railway facilities.
Amaechi spoke during an unscheduled assessment tour of the train service to ascertain the level of damage caused on the rail tracks after it was attacked by bandits who used explosives to detonate the tracks.
According to him, ” We want to assure the public that beyond the physical presence of Police and the Military along this track, we will get a rail bus for patrol regularly so that we can see what is happening even before the train takes off, and it will be end to end. Apart from this, there has not been any security challenges on this track.
“What this has done to us is that we would fasten the procurement process of the digital security system that we planned to put in place. It has gone to the Cabinet two weeks ago and it has returned. So, we’ll re-present it to Cabinet to ensure that we get approval for the installation.
“The essence of the digital security system is to enable us to know when there’s an impact on the rail to forestall this kind of attack. We will get the Police involved so that they will be here before the installation of the digital facility” he said.
Amaechi said though he may not be happy that the attack occurred, fact has shown that Nigerian engineers are now capable of constructing their own railway.
“I am not happy that the security breach took place but what it has done is to show that we actually have the capacity to fix our rail. The essence of this is to make sure that by the time the Chinese leaves, we should start the gradual process of constructing our own railway. The repair was done by our own Nigerian engineers in record time and by tomorrow (Saturday) we will run the first train”, he said.
