A former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abbas Abdulahi Machika, has insisted that suspected hoodlums, Thursday morning, attacked an Abuja-bound train with projectiles, shattering one of the windows on the train.

He said the train which left the Rigassa train station at around 10: 45a.m. was attacked few kilometres to Rijanna, about forty kilometres from Kaduna. Rijanna is notorious on the Abuja Kaduna highway as a haven for criminals, especially kidnappers who routinely kidnapped commuters on the Highway.

He told Vanguard that because of the “loud bang” that accompanied the attack, it must have come from a “ballastic projectile” No passenger was hurt in the incidence as the windows of the coaches, though not bullet proof, are believed to be tampered.

Hon Abbass Abdullahi Machika who spoke with Vanguard on the incidence said the attack happened to “Windows 83 and 84, on coach SP 2 of the train that left Kaduna at 10:45am to Abuja at Rijanna. The impact and the noise made us to conclude that it was something of high velocity.

“There was no casualty but this underscores the insecurity situation in the country,” the passenger, a former member of the House of Representatives from Katsina state told Vanguard. The police Public Relations Officer for the Kaduna State police command, Yakubu Sabo said he had not receive any report on attack on any train as at the time of filling this report.

He however said “the right people to speak on the matter are the Nigerian railway corporation.” A man who contacted this correspondent at about 3:20pm and claimed to be a policeman on duty at the train station in Idu claimed that what happened to the train was a stone being “hurled at the window by hoodlums”.

The unidentified caller whose phone number was withheld claimed that “they suspected that someone stoned the train with a rock around Rijana, Kaduna state, which resulted in the breaking of the glass.” (Vanguard)

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