With the 14 additional persons accounted for, there are now 186 passengers confirmed to be safe.
No fewer than 146 of the 362 passengers on the ill-fated Abuja-Kaduna train have been unreachable since last week Tuesday, the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has said.
The Managing Director of NRC, Mr Fidet Okhiria disclosed this known on Sunday, while confirming that contact had been made with 14 more passengers.
With the 14 additional persons accounted for, there are now 186 passengers confirmed to be safe, News Agency of Nigeria reports.
Terrorists last Monday evening attacked a Kaduna-bound train, killing some people and kidnapping many others.
Eight persons were confirmed killed and 26 others were injured among the train passengers.
With 186 passengers considered safe, that leaves 176 names on the manifest left.
While eight have been confirmed dead, 22 persons have been reported missing by their relatives, leaving 146 names unaccounted for.
Okhiria said that the large number of passengers who are unreachable has given rise to fears that they may have been abducted by the terrorists.
“Fifty-one (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,” Okhiria said.
According to him, 60 phone numbers on the manifest when called, responded non-existent, noting that two coaches (SP 00016 and SP 00017) earlier re-railed have safely been moved to Rigasa Station.
”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 on board 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),” Okhiria said.
”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 the site while some sections of twisted tracks have 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,” he added.