A passenger train from Warri to Itakpe has derailed in Kogi forest forcing many of the passengers to abandon the train in fear of being taken hostage.
The Network gathered that the train which left Warri early on Sunday morning derailed at exactly 12:pm in the thick forest between Ajaokuta and Itakpe.
A former Chairman of the Bayelsa Vigilante Agency, Prince Douye Koroye, who was in VIP told the Network that suspected terrorists cut the rail line which made the train to derail at a high speed.
Koroye, who was also former Special Adviser to the Bayelsa State Government on Youth and Community Development, said that four coaches and the head coach of the train are damaged beyond repair.
He said that the stranded and agitated passengers were told to remain in the train for about two and a half hours without at help from the Nigeria Railway Corporation.
According to him, many passengers are stranded in the Bush and are being guarded by the security team in the train.
He said that after the long wait for a rescue that did not come, the first set of passengers including him took to the forest and trekked for a long time before they got to the road to take a vehicle to Itakpe.
He said, “It was God that saved us. I was coming to Abuja with the Warri-Itakpe train. Unusually, the train left very early. We got to Ajaokuta, and after some time, I just saw that the train derailed. It was a major accident. It was like what happened in Kaduna. Some criminals have cut the rail line and the train sped into it a derailed.
We were about 300 to 400 and the sad thing was that there no network: it was in the middle of the forest.
The train derailed at 12:15. We were there till around 2:20pm. Four coaches, the head coache damaged.
Police were telling people.
“After spending about two hours, some of the trapped passengers opted to trek through the bush against warning by security men to escape being in caught by terrorists in the train by Terrorists.
“Train derailed off track, believed to be Masterminded by terrorists, spent an hour in the bush, fear and panic, finally took the risk, I walked through the bush, despite security men warning and got to where I took a vehicle, now going to Abuja from Lokoja.
Our Correspondent contacted the Spokesman of the Nigerian Railway Corporation in its National Headquarters, in Lagos, Mr Yakubu Mahmoud, but he refused to speak on efforts being made to rescue the stranded passengers.
Mr Mahmoud referred him to a Spokesman of the Corporation in Agbor instead.
“I am in Lagos. Who told you they ( the passengers are stranded now? Talk to the PRO in Agbor.”
The Spokesman decided to end the call when he was reminded that he was being called as the National spokesman to get clarification.
He declined to provide the number of the spokesman in Agbor when our correspondent request for it.
Credit: THE NETWORK.
