Extensive recovery of the rolling stock of the ill-fated AK9 train attacked penultimate Monday has been achieved, the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) Managing Director, Engr. Fidet Okhiria, has said.
Specifically, the half capsized coach (SP 00003) has been pushed back to standing position while coach (SP 00002) has been re-railed and pushed to Rigasa Station in Kaduna, bringing the total number of recovered coaches to 12 out of 14.
These include all the 11 coaches of the attacked train and one coach of the rescue train.
The foregoing was contained in the seventh update issued by Okhiria on the incident yesterday. The update said that efforts were on to recover the remaining two coaches and Loco 2809, while intensive and more expansive track repair works had also been achieved at the incident site.
Okhiria gave no clue about any fresh developments regarding those abducted or still missing in the incident, saying that the status regarding the ill-fated passengers remained the same.
“The status of the 362 passengers and 20 crew members on board remains the same as at our last update,” he said.
In its sixth update issued last Tuesday, NRC had claimed that eight passengers had died in the incident while a total of 163 passengers were still missing.
Giving a breakdown of the figures of the missing persons, Okhiria, on Tuesday, said 46 of those missing still had their phone numbers (as contained in the manifest) either switched off or not reachable since Tuesday, March 29, 2022, while 33 phone numbers were ringing but still no response from the other end, and 62 phone numbers were non-existent. Twenty-two persons are reported missing by their relatives, and eight are confirmed dead.
But there are indications that one of the abductees, Alhaji Alwan Ali-Hassan, who is the Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture, was released on Thursday.
Ali-Hassan was, according to his abductors, released on compassionate ground and “in the spirit of the Ramadan”.
This brings to 192 the total number of passengers who have been declared safe and reunited with their families while 170 others are still either missing or dead, since the incident happened over 13 days ago.
Okhiria however assured that the Corporation would continue to update the general public on latest developments on the sad incident, even as he appreciated the security agencies for their continued efforts in ensuring the rescue of all those involved in the incident.