Statement of press release on 19th May, 2022 from the spokespeople of the families of the abducted victims on the Abuja-Kaduna train.
#SaveAK9Trainpassengers.
#KadunaTrainAttack

https://twitter.com/AK9Passengers/status/1527395573497733120?t=0uoJvM9E3u7QjyJ_i_DnVg&s=08


STATEMENT OF PRESS RELEASE

DATE 19' May, 2022

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press and Family members, Good morning to you all. It is exactly 52 days today since a journey of about 2 hours on NRC AK9 Train from Abuja to Kaduna ended in the death of 9 Nigerians, scores injured and abduction of scores of passengers.

It has been 52 long days of captivity, fear, anxiety, tears, agony, trauma and recently despair. We cannot wait for this to come an end. Amidst this depressing situation, NRC announced its planned resumption of train services for Monday, 23rd May, 2022.

Nigerians have clearly expressed their opposition to this highly insensitive decision of NRC given that 61 Nigerian citizens are still languishing in the deep forest in the hands of their abductors.

Moreover, can NRC guarantee the safety of prospective passengers-. It has been over 2 weeks since Mr. President directed the Management of NRC to set up a Situation Room to give a minute by minute account of rescue efforts to relatives of kidnapped passengers as a means of calming down nerves and to reassure us that concerted efforts are being made to secure the release of our loved ones. This task as simple as it is to accomplish has not been attended to by NRC.

We have been kept in the dark to continue agonizing and indeed some family members are now on the verge of a mental stability challenge. One can only imagine the physical, mental and emotional status of our relatives in captivity. We the relatives of abducted passengers are proud Nigerians with clear identities. We are not ghosts and we are certainly not faceless as alleged by the Management of NRC in their Press Release.

The M.D of NRC, Mr Fidet Okhiria claimed in a recent interview with Arise TV that he has been in regular contact with the real relatives of kidnapped passengers. Nothing can be further from the truth. We challenge Mr Okhiria to name just 10 of the real relatives he has been dealing with out of the over 1000 relatives of his passengers still held hostage in the forest. This deliberate misinformation by Mr. Okhiria is least expected of a public servant of his standing and more so in a situation that requires utmost sincerity in resolving the current challenge of hostage taking.

It is important to note that on two different occasions in November, 2021 and January, 2022, Kaduna State government advised NRC to suspend its evening train services for security concerns but this advice was not heeded, most probably for commercial gain accruable, but at what cost. The rest is now history and we pray this history does not repeat itself.

We want to put it on record that the Managing Director of NRC, Mr Fidet Okhira has not met any of the relatives of abducted passengers since this incident occurred. We made several attempts to meet him and all our efforts were to no avail. We submitted the email addresses of leaders of our group to Mallam Yakubu Mahmood, Deputy Director and Spokesperson, NRC, for the purpose of starting a Situation Room but it has been one excuse or the other as nothing has been done in this regard.

The attitude of the top Management of NRC to presidential directives is a clear testimony of gross incompetence and insensitivity to the plight of relatives of abducted passengers and we demand their immediate replacement. We would, once again, like to appeal most passionately to Mr. President to direct all Security Agencies involved in the rescue efforts to accelerate action so that our beloved ones in captivity can be reunited with us soonest.

OUR PRAYERS REMAIN
1. Safe rescue of our family members in captivity

2. Abuja Kaduna Train service should be put on hold until our first prayer is met, and adequate security measures are put in place to guarantee the safety of prospective passengers.

Thank you
Dr. AbdulFatai Jimoh Muhammad
Dr. Baaba