NRC’s Managing Director, Fidet Okhiria, disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen on Monday.

He said that the corporation was working assiduously with security agencies to ensure that the abductees were rescued and reunited with their families.

”We are committed to the rescue of our passengers and staff who were aboard the ill-fated Ak9 train service,” Okhiria said, adding that all hands would be on deck to effectually ”collaborate with security agencies to ensure that all persons being held are rescued unhurt and reunited with their families”.

Our heart goes out to those who lost loved ones, and those injured in the attack who are now recuperating,” he said.

The managing director stated that 191 out of the 362 validated passengers aboard the train had been confirmed safe and were in their various homes.

He also stated that ”five others were confirmed safe on April 4” while ”about 46 phone numbers on the manifest are still either switched off or not reachable”.

He, however, noted that ”33 phone numbers are ringing but not answered while 62 phone numbers are responding to be non-existent”.

Okhiria said that so far 22 persons had been reported missing by their relatives, with eight persons already confirmed dead.

Speaking on the 20 crew members aboard the train, the NRC boss noted that, of the seven NRC staff aboard, ”five are safe and two missing; 10 janitors: six are safe, three missing and one dead. Also, one caterer is safe while two are missing”.

The managing director said that an additional coach, SP 00020, had been re-railed and moved safely to Rigasa Station, bringing the total number of recovered coaches that had been safely moved to the NRC stations to eight.

“Intensive track repair works have been ongoing to enable the recovery of the remaining coaches and locomotives,” he said, promising to keep the general public abreast of the unfolding developments to avoid speculations and misinformation

Managing Director, NRC, Fidet Okhiria, who confirmed the blast said on Thursday that services on the route had to be halted in order to carry out thorough investigations on the matter.

A former Senator from Kaduna State, Shehu Sani, had earlier posted on his verified Twitter handle that bandits attacked a train on the Abuja-Kaduna route on Wednesday.

Reacting to this, Okhiria said that there was a blast on the facility which ruptured the track, forcing the corporation to halt operations.

He said, “There was an explosion but until the team that is investigating the matter comes with its report we cannot confirm whether it is a bomb or not. But there was a blast. Operations have been stopped for today in order to do a proper inspection and we hope that before the end of the day we would have done the needful. There was nothing like that. Only an explosive that went up on the track. Are you aware that we even ran a train service this morning? There was nothing like shooting or the train by bandits. Efforts are currently ongoing to ensure full train services are restored along that route.”

Before Okhiria’s reaction to the matter, the Abuja/Kaduna Train Service Station Manager, Paschal Nnorli, had also confirmed that there was an attack on the train, but could not tell if it was with an explosive.

“Yes, there was an attack, but right now I cannot confirm if it was an explosive or bomb attack as people are saying. Investigations are ongoing and I’ll give you updates as they come in. Our engineers have been mobilised to the area. And right now we have suspended services.”