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Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) workers have condemned the Oct. 20 attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train, describing it as an act of terrorism.
The workers, under the aegis of Nigeria Union of Railway Workers (NURW) and Senior Staff Association, NRC branch, expressed their concerns at a joint news conference, held on Thursday in Lagos.
NURW President, Mr Innocent Ajiji and President, SSA, NRC branch, Mr Aliyu Mainasara, who addressed the news conference, said that the incident was premeditated.
Suspected bandits had, on Oct. 20, attacked the Abuja-Kaduna train, forcing it to stop.
“This premeditated terrorist attack on our Abuja-Kaduna passenger-train, which was the first of its kind in Nigeria, is a terrorist attack on our collective sensibilities and conscience as a nation.
“It is also a brazen attack against humanity, which every Nigerian must rise against and condemn,” the workers said.
They also expressed worries over the safety mantra of the rail transport system in Nigeria.
“This is why the thematic preoccupation of our statement and position on this unfortunate incident is to ask some key questions.
“Was there any intelligence available to the relevant quarters and authorities about the attack on the Nigerian Railway train before it happened?
“If there was no intelligence, does that mean that the entire Nigeria’s security architecture were on holiday?
“If there was some intelligence available before the attack happened, what did the relevant agencies do with it?” they queried.
The union leaders urged the Federal Government and security agencies to come up with more result-achieving terrorist threat mitigation strategies that would practically make the recurrence of such attack on the train a huge impossibility.
They also appealed that the outlook of the security agencies should be an aggressive, very proactive, comprehensive, can-do and must-do type of attitude.
