The management of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has lamented that in the last five months, the corporation has lost over N531 million in estimated ticket revenue on the Abuja-Kaduna Standard Gauge Train service.
The NRC’s Managing Director, Fidet Okhiria, who said this at a media briefing at the corporation’s headquarters on Wednesday in Lagos said the loss was caused by the March 28 terrorist attack on Kaduna-bound passengers on the train.
Terrorists earlier this year attacked passengers on the train, killing at least 10 persons and kidnapping scores of others.
Some of the kidnapped victims have regained their freedom; however, many of them are still being held captive by terrorists.
The Abuja-Kaduna route was shut down after the attack.
According to The Nation, Okhiria said the figure was the loss incurred between March 28 and August.
The managing director confirmed that some of the abductees including four NRC workers were still held captive by their abductors but assured them that the Nigerian Government was doing everything possible to secure their freedom.
“The whole essence is not to release these people by force because that could lead to incurring unwarranted collateral damage. That is why the security agencies are bidding their time to negotiate their freedom,” Okhiria was quoted as saying.
According to him, the government would deploy real-time technology and security systems that would be complemented by the stationing of security agents at various strategic locations on the Abuja-Kaduna corridor.
He, therefore, called on Nigerians to always support the government to end attacks on railway assets across the country; pointing out that it is a sheer act of wickedness to willfully attack and vandalise the nation’s assets which would reverse all the gains already made to bequeath a befitting railway system to the general public.
Meanwhile, the managing director debunked reports that the corporation was planning to stop operation on the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Train service.
Okhiria noted that the service had been running four scheduled services daily, while the Itakpe-Warri train runs two train services daily.
However, the NRC boss said the terrorist attack affected the projection of the corporation to have increased the number of trips on the Abuja-Kaduna service to 12 per day and the Lagos-Ibadan service to 10 trips per day.