Seven days after terrorists attacked a train on the Abuja-Kaduna route, killing at least nine passengers, injuring 25, with at least 21 still held in the terrorists’ den, there are indications that some of the passengers may never be tracked or traced.
The latest updated report released by the managing director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) as of April 4, 2022, showed that 62 persons may not be tracked.
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“62 phone numbers on the manifest when called responded ‘non-existent’,” the MD said in a statement.
This shows that the tickets they travelled on may have false details. This is possible because a lot of times passengers travel with tickets they did not directly purchase.
Also, ticket racketeers may off-take tickets so that they could sell to desperate passengers for a markup. It could also mean that some of the passengers might have used false mobile numbers while purchasing their tickets. This happens even on ticket counters where the machines accept any 11-digit number and print out the ticket for a passenger.
Most passengers accept the tickets without questions because their interest is just to board the train to their destinations.
However, in situations of emergency, like the last train attack, those passengers may never be traced, whether they are safe or unsafe.
In the extant case, some of the 62 whose numbers are non-existent may be home with their families or in the hands of the kidnappers, but it would be difficult to establish their positions and so they cannot be accounted for.
Meanwhile, the NRC MD, while giving details on status of 362 validated passengers on board, he said, “191 persons on the manifest are now confirmed safe and at their various homes (additional five persons confirmed safe); 46 phone numbers on the manifest are still either switched off or not reachable since Tuesday morning; 33 phone numbers on the manifest are ringing but still no response from the other ends; 22 persons are reported missing by their relatives and eight persons confirmed dead.”
He further said there were a total of 20 train crew members on board, five NRC staff, of which two were still missing, 10 janitors, three of them still missing, with one dead, and three caterers, with two still missing.
The NRC MD also said one more coach had been recovered and ferried to safety; bringing the number of recovered coaches to eight.
He assured that intensive track repair works were ongoing at the site to enable the recovery of the remaining coaches and locomotives.
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