A coalition of Civil Society Organisations under the aegis of Civil Society Forum of Nigeria, on Wednesday, demanded the immediate resignation of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, over the recent attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train.
Nigeria News House recalls that many persons were killed and others missing on March 28 when terrorists detonated a bomb on a rail track and opened fire on a train linking Abuja with Kaduna. Several others were also kidnapped in the process.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday after visiting the scene of the attack, Amaechi said the agencies that need to grant approvals for the monitoring of rail lines in Kaduna and across the country should do so to forestall these types of attacks.
“Again, I call on all agencies that need to give approvals for the surveillance equipment and sensors for effective monitoring of the rail tracks to do so quickly, to forestall attacks like this,” the minister had tweeted.
But the Executive Director of Voters Rights Assembly, Yinka Dada, at a press conference on behalf of ten other CSOs, alleged that the Federal Executive Council rejected the N3.7 billion proposal for the procurement of security equipment because Amaechi placed personal interest above national interest.
He alleged that the minister lobbied for the contract to be awarded to a company which has father, mother and child as directors.
According to him, the award was rejected because the company which was formed less than two years prior, had no track record of handling a contract on surveillance systems.
Mr Yinka stated that the attack on the train might have been curtailed if there were surveillance systems in place.
