Transportation minister, Amaechi fingers govt. bureaucracy for causing Abuja-Kaduna train bombing
Abuja-Kaduna train bombing
Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has blamed the bureaucratic bottleneck associated with the procurement of “Digital Security Architecture” to secure the rail lines as responsible for the bomb blast on Abuja-Kaduna rail corridor, Tribune reports.
The Minister who was accompanied by the Minister of State for Transportation, Sen. Gbemisola Ruqayyah Saraki and the Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Maigari Dingyadi made this known on Wednesday via a statement signed by the Director of Press and PR of the Ministry, Eric Ojiekwe.
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According to the Minister of Transportation, while on an inspection of the blast site located between Rijana and Dutse section, about Km 137 from Abuja, “We have not being able to install the security sensors because the procurement process is a bit difficult. It is typical of Nigerians. When you come to government for approval and your colleagues are the people stopping you, it is annoying. Shortening the approval process could have saved lives like these.”
Explaining the workability of the security apparatus, Amaechi said the drones alone can inform the system when there are people around the rail tracks, as the equipment picks up sensors when the track,s are bridged, thereby making it possible to respond to danger.
Still voicing his frustration, the Minister said: “Even if they give us approval now, it will take some months to acquire them from overseas, to install them. We need to do that to enable us see from Kaduna-Abuja, Itakpe-Warri and from Lagos-Ibadan, what is going on so that we don’t continue to lose lives because lives are important. If we don’t do that, more persons will die. The cost was about N3 billion and the damage here is more than N3billion. So, if we had gotten the approval, we would have saved lives.
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“When we applied for approval, Dollar was around N400, but now Dollar is around N500, meaning we will now spend more to install those equipment.”
Decrying the public opinion as regards cost of the equipment, the Minister said “you cannot equate it with the eight lives that were lost. The equipment were just N3billion and it is the nouveau across the world.
“What kind of due process is that? When I say due process, it does not necessarily mean BPP, but whatever agency it is; they need to get us approval so that we can get it out of cabinet,” Amaechi said.
On the measures to be deployed pending grant of approval, the Minister disclosed that the idea of employing natives to bridge security gaps in remote locations is being considered.
Regarding the number of persons on board the train and others, Amaechi said the total number of passengers on the train was 398 less staff of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, cleaning staff; all of whom were not on the manifest. He added that the number of missing, kidnapped and injured persons have been ascertained.
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On the patrol vehicles recently donated to the Railway corporation, Amaechi said they are available but cannot reach everywhere as some of the terrain are inaccessible, adding that attacks have been forestalled in sections within reach of the patrol trucks.
The Chairman, Governing Board, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Engr. Ibrahim Alhassan Musa, in a chat with the media, urged everyone to be security-conscious and to report any suspicious activity to the relevant authority.
“When you see any suspicious activity, (report it) because there is no way that people riding 50-70 motorcycles can go unnoticed without anybody seeing them or hearing the noise,” he said.
Furthermore, he condoled with all those who lost loved ones and wished the injured a quick recovery.
