Civil Rights Group Faults NRC, Security Agencies Over  Attack On Passenger Train

By Frank Oshanugor

Foremost civil rights advocacy group,  Human  Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA)  has expressed worry over the failure of both the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) and the security agencies in the country to act on the purported intelligence report on impending terrorist attack on the Abuja-Kaduna railway service.

The group said  in a statement on Thursday that “the NRC and the security services had all the time and resources to avert the attack but failed to act if information we gleaned from some competent sources are anything to go by.”

HURIWA lamented that this sort of inaction even after getting advanced intelligence about impending attacks were a regular occurance in virtually all bloody attacks staged by armed Fulani militia across the country; thereby lending credence to widespread allegations that the attackers have funders inside the highest echelons of government.

The group has therefore urged President Muhammadu Buhari to uncover these sponsors of terrorism within his administration and flush them out.

In the statement signed by its national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National media affairs Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said the action and inaction of the Nigerian Railway Corporation and the security services in the country have further shown the complicity of the security on the terrorists activities ravaging the country.

HURIWA, while making references to various newspaper publications revealing that intelligence reports about impending terrorists attacks on the Abuja-Kaduna railway services were made available two days prior to the attack yet nothing was done to avert the attack, allowing the terrorists ample time to carry out two attacks on a Kaduna bound train, thereby exposing both the commuters and the rail architectures to harm and danger.

The Civil Rights crusading platform further called on the relevant security agencies in the country to launch a thorough investigation and those found culpable for not acting on the said intelligence should be made to face the full wrath of the law

The group noted that “the attack on Owerri Correctional Centre and the police command was also captured by proactive intelligence officers of the Department of State Services but as was alleged, the then police Inspector General then failed to act.

“The attack on a village near Nsukka two years ago by Fulani terrorists in which over 40 villagers were slaughtered that made the Enugu State governor  Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to weep on television whilst visiting the villages, was also revealed to the governor just as the governor reportedly passed on the intelligence to all the heads of security in Enugu State clear 48 hours before the terrorists struck.  Yet, no action was taken to forestall the attack. All the attacks on Plateau State and Southern Kaduna by armed Fulani militia were detected by intelligence but the armed forces failed to prevent these genocides from happening. The time to stop this vicious circle of deliberate failed intelligence or conspiratorial plots by top officers of the security services is now”, the rights group insisted.

HURIWA said if the safety of train users can no longer be guaranteed, then the railway corporation should as a matter of urgency shutdown services on the Abuja-Kaduna railway pending when security improves.