The Federal government has extended the resumption date for the Abuja-Kaduna train service to December 2022.
Speaking on Sunday while inspecting the train facilities in Kaduna, the Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Sambo said “we are here to assess the state of readiness of train services between Abuja and Kaduna.
He explained that measures have been put in place in order to ensure lives and properties on the train service are secured.
Sambo said the identified security areas in the course of the inspection will be addressed before the train service will resume.
“We have introduced a new system before you buy a ticket, the purchase requires you to present a phone number, and a National identification card, that is the beginning of the security check so that at any point in time that a train moves from one station to another we know who and who are on board.
“If you don’t have a NIN, you are not going to board our train, its as simple as that, if you are a minor an adult will pay for you or register for you and an adult can only register not more than four minors”.
The Minister further explained that “we want to give sufficient time for the Nigerian public to listen to this and assimilate this new system, so if we start tomorrow (Monday 28th November, 2022), a lot of people will be disgruntled” he stated.
Sambo said, “between three, four or five days certainly not more than a week,” the train service would resume.
“Security measures have been put in place but we are not going to tell you what has been done because it is a security matter. There is a software that will confirm the NIN is you”.
He however stated that “the only person that will give you that assurance of total security is almighty God but whatever is humanly possible to secure the lives of users of this service has been put in place and we will continue to upgrade it, we will be monitoring it on a daily basis and improve whenever we find some slacks”.
Abuja-Kaduna train service was suspended for eight (8) months following an attack by gunmen on a train that left many dead, some injured and many kidnapped.
A few weeks ago, the Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Sambo announced that the train service will resume before the end of November 2022.
However, after the latest assessment, the service remains suspended till December 2022.
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