Terrorists loyal to the Islamic State West Africa (ISWAP) and Ansaru were responsible for the destruction of the Abuja-Kaduna rail track on Wednesday and Thursday.
Even though the Nigerian Railway Corporation blamed vandals for the incident, security sources fingered terrorists, according to Daily Trust.
Recall that POLITICS NIGERIA had reported about the bomb explosion, which subsequently forced the suspension of train services on Kaduna-Abuja Route.
Former Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Chairman in Kaduna State, Garba Mohammed, was on the train on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, Shehu Sani, a former Senator representing Kaduna Central, was among the passengers. He tweeted about how they ‘miraculously’ escaped unhurt.
The Abuja-Kaduna train service recently clocked five years and apart from some operational glitches and minor security breaches, this is the first major attack on the service.
The rising insecurity in the northwest—vicious attacks on local communities and kidnapping of people by criminal groups in the region—is being described by state officials as banditry. However, further evidence suggests that the government is simplifying the dynamics. In actuality, northwestern Nigeria has become the safe haven of increasingly active terrorist groups, including the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS); Jama’at Nusrat al Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM); Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb; a splinter of Boko Haram popularly referred to as ISWAP; and the Fulani herdsmen of West Africa.
