The minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and the governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasiru el-Rufai, have called for the establishment of military bases in Rijana and Katari, the hotbeds of terrorists on the Abuja-Kaduna rail corridor.
They both agreed to brief President Muhammadu Buhari on the need to establish the military formations to enhance security situation on in the axes.
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Mr Amaechi was in Kaduna to commiserate with the victims of the attack while also paying a courtesy call on the governor.
Gov El-Rufai urged security agencies to be proactive and take the fight to the terrorists in their enclaves and not wait for them to attack before they reacted.
The governor also advised the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to stop night train services, adding that the last train should leave at 4pm.
He said, “Before now, they were categorised as bandits, and if you bomb them, you will have issues with human rights organisations and international criminal courts and so on. But now that they have been declared terrorists by the courts, they can be legally killed without any consequences to international human rights organisations.
“We know where their camps are, we know where they are, the SSS have their phone numbers, they listen to them, and they give me the reports. We know what they are planning….We are in a state of war; this place should be declared a war zone. The army, the air force, the police should go in there and kill them. Will there be innocent casualties? Yes! In every war situation, there are casualties.”
Earlier, while commiserating with the victims in the hospital, the minister pledged that the ministry would liaise with the hospital’s management to pick some of the bills.
He said the president had given approval for locals to be employed to keep an eye on the train tracks and report suspicious movements to law enforcement agencies before even the surveillance equipment were procured.
He also said the Nigerian Air Force would be escorting the trains when they resumed as reconstruction would start immediately.
