One hundred and forty six of the three hundred and sixty two passengers on the ill-fated Abuja-Kaduna train in Nigeria are unreachable six days after the train was attacked by terrorists.

The Managing Director of Nigeria Railway Corporation Mr Fidet Okhiria made this known in a statement obtained on Monday.

He however said the number of safe passengers has risen to 186.

Okhiria said 58 phone numbers on the manifest are either switched off or unreachable since Tuesday, and 35 phone numbers on the manifest are ringing, but there's no response from the other end.

He also noted that 50 phone numbers on the manifest, when called, responded non-existent.

The NRC boss clarified that. 22 persons are reported missing by their relatives and eight persons were confirmed dead.

Part of the statement read "51 phone numbers on the manifest are either switched off or have not been reachable since Tuesday morning, and 35 phone numbers from the manifest are ringing but no response from the other end. 60 phone numbers on the manifest, when called, responded non-existent.

"The statement is aimed at updating Nigerians on the ongoing development regarding clearing of the incident site (recovery of the rolling stock, repairs of the track), and status of passengers that were on board the AK9 train of Monday, March 28.
"Of the 362 validated passengers on board the attacked AK9 train service of March 28, 186 person's on the manifest are confirmed to be safe and at their various homes. (Additional 14 persons confirmed safe today).

"This brings the total number of recovered coaches and safely moved to NRC stations to be seven. Intensive work continues to track repairs. More concrete sleepers were moved to site while some section of twisted tracks has been straightened.

"We remain grateful to the security agencies for all the support. We are very appreciative of Squadron Commander MOPOL 1 Karina's visit to the accident site today.

"NRC will continue to update the general public of developments to prevent misleading information and falsehood".

The PUNCH had reported how terrorists bombed the Abuja-Kaduna rail tracks and attacked a train filled with passengers on Monday night.

Following the attack, the NRC suspended train operations along the Abuja-Kaduna route indefinitely.

Security operatives were also deployed to the scene of the attack.

The attack came a few days after the terrorists attacked the Kaduna International Airport where an aircraft was prevented from taking off.


Source punchng.com