DSS warns of impending terrorist attack on Abuja-Kaduna train

GuardianAug 17, 2023Read original

The Department of State Services (DSS) has issued a security alert over a grand plot by bandits to attack the Abuja-Kaduna train service anytime from now.

Recall that an Abuja–Kaduna bound train was attacked in Katari village, Kaduna on March 28, 2022, prompting the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) to briefly halt operations along the route.

In a leaked letter signed by DSS Director of FCT Command, R.N. Adepemu, entitled, ‘Security Alert: Impending Threat By A Coalition Of Banditry Syndicate To Attack Abuja-Kaduna Train Service Along AKTS Corridor’, the DSS cautioned train passengers to be extra vigilant.

DSS warned of an “impending threat to seamless train transportation along the Abuja– Kaduna Train Service”

The secret memo stated that a coalition of banditry syndicates was plotting to attack the Abuja-Kaduna train aimed at kidnapping passengers on board for ransom any moment from now.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) high command has said it will not give in to propaganda by terrorist groups. NAF was reacting to a video shared by a terrorist group in Niger State claiming to have shot down the NAF helicopter.

Spokesman of the Air Force, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, said: “While it is not in the character of NAF to respond to such claims, particularly one peddled by terrorists, concerns expressed by well-meaning Nigerians on the need to address the propaganda becomes imperative.

“Like all military organizations involved in counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism operations, incidences of fatalities, mishaps, and crashes are sometimes inevitable.

“With heightened levels of air operations, occasioned by an enhanced fleet, the likelihood of air mishaps and accidents at times become unavoidable and inevitable due to various reasons.”

“Indeed, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar said this much when he hosted Governor Umaru Bago of Niger State, yesterday, August 15, 2023, at his office where he noted that the rates of aircraft accidents/incidences are directly proportional to the heightened level of air operations.

” While the NAF regrets such unfortunate incidents, especially as they involve the loss of lives of our colleagues, the Service will never shy away from unraveling the probable cause of the crash to draw lessons.

“For those aiding and abetting the propaganda tendencies of terrorists, deliberately or inadvertently, by spreading the videos of the alleged crash site with gory pictures of dead military personnel, the need to rethink the consequences of their actions on the morale of troops, families of deceased personnel as well as on Nigeria’s national security is imperative.

“For the NAF and indeed the entire members of the Armed Forces, our resolve and determination to bring the current security situation in Niger State and indeed all troubled spots in the country remains unshaken.

“If anything, we are determined more than ever before, to take on the enemy frontally until they are brought to their knees.