Their demand is coming just 24 hours after the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) resumed train operations on the Kaduna-Abuja route, eight months after it suspended operations following the attack that claimed the lives of nine passengers.

But the victims, who spoke to journalists in Kaduna, lamented that most of them lost their means of livelihood when they were in the custody of the terrorists who kidnapped them during the train attack.

“So, many of us have lost what we are doing and our source of income. As a citizen of this country, which I am very proud to be, I am expecting more from them (the government),” said one of the victims Mariam Idris. “I am expecting them to come to our aid.”

They also claim that the Federal Government is yet to fulfil the promises made to them shortly after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari upon their release in October, noting that most of them are already suffering from depression and psychological disorders that require urgent medical attention.

“Actually, they did collect our contacts that they would get back to us. But till now, nobody has said anything,” Mariam added.

“We are just living by His mercy because as of the time our family members realised ourselves in this mess, they have gone through difficulties – let’s be sincere.”

Mariam‘s tale is not different from that of Bala Mohammed who said “nobody gave us a single kobo” even when some of them are having health challenges.

“The health challenge we are facing now is very critical,” he added.

While he thanked the Federal Government for rescuing them, Mr Bala is asking for more.

“Our demand is that the Federal Government should come to our rescue because the trauma we are facing now is very critical,” he said. “We don’t have money to go to the hospital to take care of our health.”

The Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Sambo disclosed thus made during an inspection tour to assess the readiness of the Abuja-Kaduna rail services before the commencement of operations.

The Minister, who could not give a definite date for the resumption of the rail service, however, stated that its resumption would not be more than a week.

The Minister explained, “The federal government has introduced a new system of purchasing tickets, it is the beginning of security checks that will enable the government to ascertain who boards the train at every point in time.”

The federal government had last week stated that on Monday, 28th November, 2022, the Abuja-Kaduna rail services will resume operations.

The rail service of the Abuja-Kaduna train was suspended following the attack on the train on 28th March, 2022 when terrorists planted explosives that derailed the train.

The attack led to the killing of nine passengers and 60 were abducted but all have been released.

It could be recall that government had order a temporary closure the  Abuja-Kaduna train service after an attacked in March 2022, by bandits who killed several passengers, wounded others and kidnapped over 60 passengers.

There were social media reports that the federal government, few days ago, order the resumption of the train service on November 24, 2022.

But Managing Director of Nigeria Railway Service (NRC), Fidet Okhiria, in a statement on Monday, described the report of resumption as false, urging members of the public to disregard such false reports.

He stated that the federal government is making desperate efforts to resume the train transportation, but the definite date has not been fixed.

”I wish to inform the general public that the news is false because a definite date has not yet been fixed,” he said.

According to him, “it’s true that the Minister announced that we will resume services on that route this November and efforts are being made by all necessary quarters to ensure we resume before the end of November.”

The NRC Managing Director, while reiterating government’s efforts and commitment to securing the lives and properties of the esteemed passengers, also promised that necessary things would be put in place before resumption.

The President made an impromptu visit to the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) hospital to see the victims of the train attack after commissioning Cadets of 69 Regular Course of the NDA, in Afaka, Kaduna State.

Before boarding NAF 001 back to Abuja from the Kaduna International Airport, Buhari also thanked the Nigerian military for their brave services in securing the safe release of the hostages from Boko Haram terrorists.

Members of the Chief of Defence Staff Action Committee, led by Maj.-Gen. Usman Abdulkadir (Rtd), who facilitated the release of the train victims, were present at the hospital.

Recall that the remaining 23 Abuja-Kaduna train victims were on Wednesday, released by their abductors.

Usman Yusuf, the Secretary of the Chief of Defence Staff Action Committee, who announced the release in a statement on Wednesday, said the hostages were released at about 4pm.

The victims were kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists during an attack on a moving passenger train in Kaduna on March 28, 2022.

This was disclosed by the Secretary of the Chief of Defence Staff Action Committee, Usman Yusuf.

Yusuf said that the hostages were released at about 4pm on Wednesday.

He said that the committee secured and took the custody of the victims who were kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists during an attack on a passenger train in Kaduna on March 28, 2022.

This comes almost week after suspected terrorists bombed the Abuja-Kaduna rail tracks and attacked a train filled with passengers on Monday night.

The NRC Managing Director, Fidet Okhiria, made this known in a statement on Monday, stating that the number of safe passengers had risen to 186.

According to him, 51 phone numbers on the manifest are either switched off or unreachable since Tuesday morning and 35 phone numbers on the manifest are ringing, but no response from the other end.

About 22 persons are reported missing by their relatives and eight persons were confirmed dead, the statement disclosed.

The statement read in part, “51 phone numbers on the manifest are either switched off or have not been reachable since Tuesday morning and 35 phone numbers on the manifest are ringing, but no response from the other end. 60 phone numbers on the manifest when called, responded non-existent.

“The statement is aimed at updating Nigerians on the ongoing development regarding the clearing of the incident site (recovery of the rolling stock, repairs of the track) and status of Passengers that were onboard the AK9 train of Monday, March 28.

“Of the 362 validated passengers on board the attacked AK9 train service on March 28, 186 persons on the manifest are confirmed to be safe and at their various homes (additional 14 persons confirmed safe today).

“Two coaches (SP 00016 and SP 00017) earlier re-railed have safely been moved to Rigasa Station.

“This brings the total number of recovered Coaches and safely moved to NRC Stations to be seven. Intensive work continues on track repairs. More concrete Sleepers were moved to site while some section of twisted tracks has been straightened.

“We remain grateful to the security agencies for all the support. We are very appreciative of Squadron Commander MOPOL 1 Kaduna’s visit to the accident site today.

“NRC will continue to update the general public of developments to prevent misleading information and falsehood.”