Terrorist attacks: Railway authorities tighten security at stations

By JONAH NWOKPOKU

The Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, has said it is implementing new security measures to forestall terrorist attacks on any of its stations. This is coming in the wake of a terrorist attack of a bus park in Kano that killed over sixty people.

The Assistant Director, Public Realtions, NRC, Mr. David Ndanusa made this known while speaking to Vanguard on the safety of rail travelers following the development.

“By the grace of God rail travelers have nothing to fear but that does not mean that we are taking passengers’ security for granted. When this type of thing happens, it is a clarion call for us to be more vigilant.” He said.

“In view of what happened, we are taking serious proactive security measures to ensure safety. We are not joking with that. Even in all our stations from Lagos to Kano, we are very mindful of the security situation. Already we have plain clothed security operatives in all our stations even in all the coaches.” He added.

He said the corporation would improve security emphasizing that they observe all the security details in all their services to ensure absolute safety.

“We are going to be more vigilant with what just happened. We have started scanning passengers before they enter the train, so that we don’t carry anyone who would jeopardize the security of the trains. We also have close circuits cameras installed in all the stations. So we are securing not only the trains but the tracks, the entire stretch of tracks, from Lagos to Kano. Before any trains move, a pilot locomotive would first move to scan the entire stretch of tracks before the main train passes.” He explained.

However, before now boarding the trains was always characterized by uncoordinated entries, a situation some passengers said may make it easy for security to be breached.

“This rushing in is particularly bad because of the current state of insecurity in the country now. If people rush in like that, how would you know if someone who would jeopardize the security of the train would enter too?” Ayola who traveled by the rail from Abeokuta to Kaduna said.

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