A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Femi Falana has called for the prosecution of those whose criminal negligence led to the train attack on Abuja-Kaduna Way.
He made the call in a statement as shown below: 👇👇👇
A week ago, a gang of terrorists attacked the Abuja- Kaduna train with explosives. The bombing of the train left at least nine passengers dead, 41 injured and about 146 abducted. No one knows the exact number of people on board as the names of cleaners and staff were not in the manifest. On visiting the site of the dastardly attack, the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi was reported to have said that he had known that train would be bombed since the Federal Government had failed to equip it with vital security surveillance. While the President was assuring the nation that the situation was under control the criminals launched another bomb attack at the railway station in Kaduna and injured about seven people.
Barely 24 hours later, the Minister was alleged to have requested the traumatised people of Nigeria to contribute to the cost of treating the passengers who were injured in the Abuja-Kaduna train bomb attack by terrorists. During a visit to one of the hospitals where the passengers are being treated Mr. Amaechi was quoted as saying that some of them need drugs that are not manufactured in the country and therefore asked Nigerians to assist in raising the money. Even though the Minister was reported to have denied the story it is pertinent to point out that the law has imposed a legal obligation on the Nigerian Railway Corporation to bear full responsibility for injury or loss of life of passengers who were killed in the train as well as those who were kidnapped.
While the Federal Government is called upon to intensify the search for the 146 passengers whose whereabouts are unknown the injured passengers and the family members of the deceased are advised to sue the Ministry of Transportation and the Nigerian Railway Corporation for aggravated compensation as they are vicariously liable for the tragic incident. For the avoidance of doubt, section 78(1) of the Nigerian Railway Corporation Act provides that “The Corporation shall not be liable for personal injury to, or loss of life of a passenger, unless the personal injury or loss of life is caused by want of reasonable care, diligence or skill on the part of the Corporation or its servants.”
It is indisputable that the loss of lives, personal injury and abduction of passengers by the terrorists was caused “by want of reasonable care, diligence or skill on the part of the Corporation or its servants.” In other words, top officials of the Nigerian Railway Corporation and the Ministry of Transportation are liable for the criminal negligence that caused the bomb attack. Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the bomb attack the details of the criminal negligence are summarised as follows:
- Contrary to the claim of the NRC Management that there is no fraud in the sale of tickets the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had in 2019 arrested suspected five-man syndicate train ticket racketeers in the Abuja-Kaduna train operation during a sting operation at the Idu and Kubwa train stations following an intelligence report. The suspects who were arrested at the material time included Clement Zakka, Udim Sunday Samson, Adams Danladi, Otitomoni Omobolanle, and Hassan Dauda. There is no evidence that the NRC Management smashed other tickets syndicates operating in the Abuja-Kaduna and Lagos-Ibadan train stations.
- On October 21 last year, the Management of the NRC announced the suspension of train services on the ground that there was an explosion on the rail track that affected the fuel tank of the Locomotive on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line (AK10) on October 20. Without any investigation whatsoever the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Mr. Fidet Okhiria said that vandals and not terrorists, attacked the train. Two days later, the suspension of the train services was lifted.
- On January 30, 2022, Mr. Fidet Okhiria announced that a lot of measures had been put in place to ensure safety of travel by rail in the country. Specifically, he said that “We have a lot of DSS who are working unnoticed and most of the time, we have information beforehand and we pass it to the appropriate quarters… We have increased the number of people we have on the train — both the civil defence, the police; both uniformed and non-uniformed; those armed and not armed.”
- On or about March 6, 2022, it was reported that the Abuja-Kaduna train was once again attacked by terrorists. In debunking the story the Minister of Transportation said that “on every coach, we have armed Policemen, how can armed robbers attack the rail line? it’s very possible in the station, but it cannot happen while the rail is going and they said it happened in Rijana community. So, what we have done in the rail, we have provided security to make it easy for those who are travelling from Kaduna to Abuja to have cheaper and easy form of transportation. “
5. Although the Abuja-Kaduna train commenced operations in July 2016, it was not equipped with vital security surveillance. And following the terrorist attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train last week, the Minister of Transportation blamed the Federal Government for exposing passengers to danger by not acquiring and installing the vital security equipment recommended by him. But evidence has since established that the incompetent company recommended to fix the security surveillance on the train by the Minister was rejected last September. It means that for the past seven months the Minister abandoned the security surveillance for some inexplicable reasons.
- Although both Messrs Amaechi and Okhiria knew that the Abuja-Kaduna train was not safe they kept on giving passengers a false sense of security. Since both of them knew that the tragedy that befell the nation last week was waiting to happen and did not adopt measures to prevent it the President should direct the Inspector-General of Police to investigate and prosecute them for criminal negligence. Meanwhile, both of them should not be allowed to continue to risk the lives of train passengers in the country.
However, President Buhari has belatedly directed “the immediate conclusion of all the processes for the implementation of the integrated security surveillance and monitoring solution for the Abuja to Kaduna railway line and that this be extended to cover the Lagos-Ibadan railway line.” Even though the directive of the President has not been carried out, Mr. Okhiria has announced that the Abuja-Kaduna train services would resume in two weeks’ time. The resumption of services should not be allowed until the security gadgets are fixed. Instead of enriching incompetent contractors and thereby risking the lives of passengers the Chinese company that constructed the train and the railroad tracks should be invited to install security surveillance on the Abuja-Kaduna trains and others without any further delay.
Femi Falana SAN,
Interim Chair,
Alliance on Surviving Covid 19 and Beyond 6
April 4, 2022.