Minister of Transportation, Rt Honourable Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has indicted some of his colleagues in the Federal Executive Council (FEC) over the Kaduna bomb attack that occurred on Monday.
Eight persons were killed, 25 injured, several others kidnapped, while locomotives, coaches and rail tracks were destroyed during the bomb attack on a train conveying passengers from Kaduna to Abuja.
Amaechi, who condemned the loss of lives and destruction of properties, said such an attack would have been averted, if digital security equipments were installed.
He said he had warned that lives would be lost, adding that his efforts to get digital security equipments to forestall such loss of lives were frustrated by some of his colleagues in the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
In a viral video, where Amaechi indicts his colleagues, he said he applied for procurement of digital security equipments to be installed at the train facilities to monitor the movement and activities of people, and alleged that some of his colleagues stopped the application.
“We knew what the problem is; we knew that we needed to have digital security equipments. We told them what we needed. We applied for it…
“That is where I want to end it. I don’t want to go beyond that. But I heard that the president has given a directive that they must get all the equipments.
“If we have those equipments [installed], you will see everybody at that time, for Christ’s sake. And I warned that lives would be lost. Now, lives are lost; 8 persons dead; 25 persons in hospital; we don’t know how many persons have been kidnapped.
“The cost of that equipment was just N3billion. The cost of what we lost is more than N3billion. We have lost tracks; we have lost locomotives and coaches; we have lost human beings.
“The equipment is just N3billion. To fix those equipments now; to fix all those things on that track will cost more than N3billion.
“What we said was ‘give us approval to buy, not money’. At the time we asked for it, a dollar was N400. 00. Now, if we are going to buy, we are going to buy at 500. 00.
“When you came with sincerity to government and your colleagues, some people are stopping you, it is annoying,” Rotimi Amaechi said in the video.
