A total of 146 out of 362 registered passengers that boarded the ill-fated Abuja-Kaduna train are reportedly unreachable six days after terrorists attacked the train.
This was contained in a statement by the Managing Director of Nigerian Railway Corporation, Mr Fidet Okhiria, on Monday.
Okhiria revealed that the total number of safe passengers had also risen to 186.
The NRC MD said a total of 51 phone numbers on the manifest are either switched off or unreachable since Tuesday morning, while another 35 phone numbers on the manifest are ringing, but no response from the other end.
Okhiria also noted that another 60 phone numbers on the manifest when responded non-existent when called.
He also clarified that 22 persons have been reported missing by their relatives, whole another eight persons have been confirmed dead.
The statement read in part;
“51 phone numbers on the manifest are either switched off or have not been reachable since Tuesday morning and 35 phone numbers on the manifest are ringing, but no response from the other end. 60 phone numbers on the manifest when called, responded non-existent.
”The statement is aimed at updating Nigerians on the ongoing development regarding the clearing of the incident site (recovery of the rolling stock, repairs of the track) and status of Passengers that were onboard the AK9 train of Monday, March 28.
”Of the 362 validated passengers on board the attacked AK9 train service on March 28, 186 persons on the manifest are confirmed to be safe and at their various homes (additional 14 persons confirmed safe today).
“Two coaches (SP 00016 and SP 00017) earlier re-railed have safely been moved to Rigasa Station.
”This brings the total number of recovered Coaches and safely moved to NRC Stations to be seven. Intensive work continues on track repairs. More concrete Sleepers were moved to site while some section of twisted tracks has been straightened.
”We remain grateful to the security agencies for all the support. We are very appreciative of Squadron Commander MOPOL 1 Kaduna’s visit to the accident site today.
”NRC will continue to update the general public of developments to prevent misleading information and falsehood.”
Daily Report Nigeria can recall that terrorists bombed the rail tracks of the Abuja-Kaduna train with over 900 passengers onboard.
The attack has forced the NRC suspended train operations along the Abuja-Kaduna route indefinitely.
The attack occured barely 48 hours after terrorists attacked the Kaduna International Airport, preventing an aircraft from taking off.
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