The Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi has reacted to the terrorist attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train saying he had warned that lives would be lost.
He added that the government knew what the problem would be. “We knew we needed to have digital security equipment”. He said that the equipment was applied for, but people blocked it from been actualise.
“Because if we had those equipment, you will see nobody on that track. And I warned that lives will be lost. Now, lives are lost. Eight persons dead, 25 persons in 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. We’ve lost tracks, we’ve lost locomotives and coaches. We’ve lost human beings. And the equipment is just N3 billion.
He opined that to fix all the things on that track, it will cost more than N3 billion. “And now even the things we said give us approval to buy – at the time we asked for it, 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.”
