About 30 passengers and railway staff abducted as kidnappers hijack train in Edo State

NIGERIA'S railway network has become the subject of another high profile terrorist attack after armed kidnappers attacked the Igueben train sub-station in Edo State and abducted 30 passengers and Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) staff.

On March 28 last year, terrorists attacked a Kaduna-Abuja bound train, killing dozens and abducting others in a gruesome attack. They demanded the release of 16 of their top commanders in exchange for over 100 innocent passengers abducted but the incident affected train travel in Nigeria immensely.

Just as the sector was beginning to recover, it suffered another major setback yesterday with the attack on Igueben station. Best Oseh, the liaison officer to the local government area, said security agencies and paramilitary organisations are combing the forests in the area to get clues.

Mr Oseh said: “As I speak, people are in the field all over the place, vigilantes, security agencies and other people, everybody is concerned but we have to be careful with what we divulge so that we won’t jeopardise the processes we are doing. As for the category of people kidnapped, some of them are from Igueben, while others are passengers from other places and as for the number, for now, we are looking at over 30 but we can only give a comprehensive number when preliminary investigations are concluded.”

Local resident Comrade Odia Benson added that the abductors released two kids who were with them while a woman reportedly escaped. He said some staff of the NRC including the station manager and ticket clerk were among those abducted.

Mr Benson added: "The train normally arrives by 5 pm so as at about 20 minutes to 5, bandits just came through the bush part and invaded the place, they took away the station manager, took away the booking clerk and about 29 other passengers made up of males and females. The railway station is in the forest, there is no security, no police, no vigilante and they are at the mercy of God.

"The station is in Igeueben town, just about 1.2 km away from Igueben General Hospital. I think about only three of the victims are from Igueben, one of them is from Ward Eight, we had another who is married to an Igueben man but based in Warri while others are from Ekpoma, from Uromi, Ubiaja, some are not even from Edo State.

  “The kidnappers released two children, it is believed that they felt the children will slow down their movements. They dropped them at an abandoned petrol station and called the family of the mother of the children that they should go and pick up the children from the place they dropped them off. "