The attack on the Kaduna-bound train by robbers might have been avoided if essential digital security technology had been deployed, according to Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi.
Amaechi stated this to media on Tuesday during a visit to the location of the tragedy with Senator Gbemisola Saraki, Minister of State for Transportation, and Mohammed Maigari Dingyadi, Minister of Police Affairs.
He said that his colleagues had refused his request for vital digital security and crime prevention technology for the country’s train lines, adding that he had warned about prospective assaults on the infrastructure, necessitating his N3 billion request.
Amaechi, on the other hand, expressed sorrow over the terrorist assault and conveyed condolences to the families of those who died in the awful event.
The minister stated that the cost of renovating the railway lines, engines, and carriages will exceed the initial budget.
As a result, he asked all authorities that need to approve surveillance equipment and sensors for effective rail track monitoring to do so as soon as possible to prevent future assaults.
“Because if we had that equipment, nobody would be on that track,” he explained. I also warned that people’s lives will be lost. Now, people’s lives are being lost. Eight people died, while another 25 were sent to the hospital.
“We don’t know how many persons have been kidnapped. And the cost of that equipment is just N3 billion. The cost of what we’ve lost is more than N3 billion.
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“We’ve lost tracks, we’ve lost locomotives and coaches. We’ve lost human beings. And the equipment is just N3 billion.
“To fix all the things on that track now, will cost us more than N3 billion. And now even the things we said give us the approval to buy – at the time we asked for it, the dollar was N400, now it is N500. When you come with sincerity to government and your colleagues and people are stopping you, it is annoying.”
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