With the nation still reeling from Monday’s deadly attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train service, fingers are being pointed at the management of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) for failing to act on credible intelligence which would have prevented the incident that has sent shock waves across the country.
According to Daily Trust, the attack was predicted months ahead with the issuance of alerts to different relevant agencies.
The newspaper quotes senior security officials as blaming officials of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) for refusing to abide by the advice to restrict train movements to daytime hours.
The attack on the train, which had on board over 300 passengers was the most devastating coming after at least three previous less successful attempts on the service.
At least nine corpses were recovered from the scene of the attack on Tuesday while some 26 others sustained injuries. A yet-to-be-determined number of passengers were also abducted by the kidnappers.
Two strands of the security warnings focus on directives for military formations in the area to respond to the threat and for the NRC to suspend night trips along the route. The Nigeria Police, which is in charge of internal security has a command responsible for the railways and usually deploys armed policemen on the train to ensure security.
But like many states bedeviled by ongoing security challenges, Kaduna State has detachments from the military under different tags taking over security duties in the state.
However, documents seen by Daily Trust and information from informed sources show that three different advisories and a similar warning at least two meetings for the suspension of the evening train shuttle were not heeded by the railway management.
Also, military formations in the area failed to take action to scuttle the impending attack.
Military high commands had issued a clear directive for troops to clear criminals’ hideouts and other enclaves that could be used ahead of the attack.
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