The Honourable Minister Of Transportation, Mu’azu Jaji Sambo has revealed that the security features on the Abuja-Kaduna train will guarantee maximum safety of passengers.
The Minister disclosed this while riding on the train to inspect the security features and other measures put in place to protect passengers and also forestall subsequent attacks that may occur in the course of plying the Abuja-Kaduna corridor after resumption.
The Minister was accompanied by the Honourable Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Hussein Adamu, Honourable Minster of State for Transportation, Prince Ademola Adegoroye, Chairman Governing Board Nigeria Railway Corporation, Alh. Ibrahim Musa, Directors of the Federal Ministry of Transportation and the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation Fidet Okhiria.
Sambo said the train service on the corridor is 90 per cent ready and that the remaining 10 per cent would be achieved in the next couple of days for a full resumption of rail services.
He said the remaining days would be utilized to achieve the balance of 10 per cent and be certain that the guarantee he is giving Nigerians to use the train is 100 per cent.
“I also want to make sure that the Nigerian public is sufficiently enlightened about the new procedure for buying tickets.
“The assurance I can give Nigerians is that I am also using this train. My counterpart, my friend here, the Honourable Minister of Water Resources has a home in Kaduna. In fact from next week, his family would start using this train.
“I am giving Nigerians the full assurance that a human being can give that this train is safe for them to use. There is absolutely nothing to fear. We have learned from what has happened and life is all about learning lessons and adopting measures to deal with the lessons.
“As a responsible government, we have seen those lessons. We have devised appropriate measures to counter them and like I always told the public, I was not going to allow this train to resume until everybody who was in captivity was released.
“To the glory of God, we have achieved that. We will also be taking measures that will ensure that by the grace of God such an incident never happens again in Nigeria.
“There are certain concrete measures that are visible for you to see and know that there are changes, for example, the ticketing and security status. Now you don’t buy a ticket unless you have a valid phone number and the National Identity Number (NIN).
“If you are a foreigner, you also have a means of identification you can use which is produced by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC). Having secured your tickets, you will not gain access to the lounge until the barcode machine reads the barcode on your receipt.
“Your image, name, necessary details and your complete profile will show on the screen. Only then will the bar be automatically lifted for you to go into the lounge.
“This is unprecedented. This is what we call Customer profiling. Ask any security expert in the world and they will tell you that when you’re dealing with passengers, the first thing in terms of security readiness is the profiling of your passengers.
“You need to know who is coming on board. That is a visible change. Another visible change people may notice will be an increase in numbers of security personnel and I’ll tell you without mincing words, some of these security personnel may not even be wearing uniforms to guarantee the safety of the travelling public.
“There are other sensitive equipment that we have deployed, which I will not reveal. The other thing I can tell you is that on every journey, the train is monitored every second on a screen and the train driver can see up to a certain distance if there’s any threat on the track.
“That will enable him apply the brakes long before getting to the perceived threat. I think that gives you comfort and that is why I’m talking to you very confidently,” he said.
He added that the introduction of the NIN would also help check cases of racketeering as a person can only purchase a ticket per trip with his NIN.
The Minister said there will be slight changes in the mode of operation as the number of trips will be reduced because a certain number of Nigerians may not be comfortable coming back to the train for obvious reasons.
He said the number of trips will eventually pick up when people are more comfortable riding on the train and that there wouldn’t be night trips for now.
“I mean, we are human beings, we are bound to feel a little bit uncomfortable until we can see that every security measure has been taken care of. It is a natural way of reacting so we will reduce the number of trips.
“As the travelling population picks up, we will increase the number of trips but we will certainly not travel at night for now,” he said.
Sambo said passengers should however expect some increase in fares which may not be immediate as a panel consultation with the management of the Nigeria Railway Cooperation and management of the ministry is ongoing.
He said the rise in the cost of maintenance is one of the reasons for the possible increase in the train fare which he said had affected aeroplane fares too.
Sambo added that the management would consider the masses while making changes in the fare, being a sensitive administration.
“I can assure you that the poor masses will be taken care of and we will be considered in raising the fare. We are a very sensitive government. We are pro-people. You know that there is no government that has been as pro-people as this government.”
The Minister of Water Resources, Eng. Suleiman Adamu who was also on the train said he was invited by the Minister of Transportation to join him on the inspection as a Kaduna resident and a colleague.
“This train service means a lot to me as well. But most importantly, as colleagues in government, the Minister invited me so that I could also see and give him our opinion about what I have observed.
“I will say without any fear of contradiction that I am very impressed with what I have seen and I am convinced that as much as humanly possible, the short to medium term may just have been taken to secure this trade to restore the service.
“However we want to assure Nigerians that the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) is back in business and myself and my family will continue to patronize this train as we used to.“We call on all Nigerians to have faith in the arrangements been put in place and come back to patronize the train service.
“If you recall, after the 911 terrorist attack in the United States, America was calling on people to go back to their normal lives. We must do that because the whole idea is to terrorize us. So we need to go back to our lives.
“We need to have faith in the system that has been put in place to secure lives and property and just move on and also for people to cooperate with the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC),” he said.
Adamu added that security is everyone’s responsibility and should not be left alone for the government or security agencies.
“People also should take security as their own business. If you usually watch NTA, there is a jingle that says “If you see something, say something,” and that means all of us should be conscious of our surroundings.
“We see anything, like things not adding up well, we should alert the security agencies and see that as part of our own citizen contribution, you know, as citizens our contribution is to make the country safe which is very important.
“Beyond that, I think people should come back to this train service. It is now good and open for business and very comfortable. We’ve been on this train now for hours and all is well and I am confident that all will continue to be well,” he said.