A PersecondNews reporter who followed the story says that the train left the terminal in Kaduna at 9:45 a.m. and got to the Idu train station in Abuja at 10:22 a.m.
The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Usman Alkali Baba, ordered that armed officers from the Police Mobile Force, K-9, Force Intelligence Bureau, Explosive Ordnance Unit, and Railway Police Command be sent right away to protect passengers.
In order to get ready for operations to start, the Nigeria Police Force has been in touch with the NRC and other security agencies on a regular basis.
The deployment includes all of the major train stations along the route and all of the working coaches. This is to make sure that passengers, their belongings, and the whole service are safe and that nothing unexpected happens.
CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, a police spokesman, said in a statement to Persecondnews on Monday, "The IGP assures the public, especially those who plan to ride the train, that their lives and property will be adequately protected, as all hands are on deck to strengthen the railway services along the route and other rail lines across the country."
Around 7:45 p.m. on March 28, 2022, terrorists took more than 100 people from a train going to Kaduna at Katan, which is close to Kaduna. At least eight people were shot and killed.
The terrorists bombed the train tracks, which caused the train to go off the tracks.
The last group of people taken hostage was set free in October after a ransom of hundreds of millions of naira was paid.
But because of what happened, the NRC had to stop the train service between Kaduna and Abuja for about 251 days.
Last week, the Federal Government said that people who take the route must now register their phone number and National Identification Number (NIN) at points where they buy tickets.
The Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said on its verified website that the NRC's revenue dropped by N1.48 billion, or 72%, in the second quarter of 2022.
Mr. Fidet Okhiria, the Managing Director of NRC, said that the government lost about N113 million because the route had not been used for over eight months.
We last checked, and that happened between February and August. Using how much money we made from January to March as a guide, we have lost about N113 million.
Even though the trains didn't work, a lot of other things were still going on.
There were people selling things on the train and in the train stations. So, the economy has lost out on those indirect benefits and costs.
"So, we shouldn't just look at how much money the railway would have made in Naira and Kobo. We should also look at how much money Nigerians lost in other ways," he said.
