The Federal Government also said plans are ongoing to resume the suspended train service soon.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Federal Government has said it did not pay a dime to secure the release of the 23 remaining kidnapped passengers of the Abuja-Kaduna train of March 28.
Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Sambo, stated this in Abuja on Friday at a press briefing organised to officially welcome the 23 released kidnapped train passengers.
The passengers were released on Wednesday months after the attack. Some of the victims had earlier been released.
“It is not appropriate to reveal exactly what measures have been taken to secure the release of hostages of this nature,” said Sambo.
“Now, there are two things I want you to bear in mind. Through this incident, it is the position of this government that under no circumstances should there be collateral damage.
“We all know what collateral damage is. In other words, the military and security agencies that have been charged with the responsibility of securing the release of these hostages should not act in a way that will endanger the lives of the same hostages.
“In other words, make sure that no hostage life is lost in the process of securing their release. There is a committee made up of some retired generals and some retired public officers of high ranking and status who assisted the military and the security agencies throughout the process of securing the release of these hostages.
“Number three, I want to state categorically that because this government does not support and approve ransom payment, no kobo was paid in exchange for the release of these 23 hostages and other ones as well.”
The Federal Government also said plans are ongoing to resume the suspended train service soon.
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It however said it will come up with a short and long-term sustainable plan in a few months to ensure the safety of the rail line and passengers.
“I have told the press that rather than lose the life of a single Nigerian, we will rather stop the rail service.
“We could not resume with a clear conscience knowing the kind of trauma that both the victims and their loved ones were going through, we felt that it was not appropriate to resume rail services.
“Now, I can tell you, we are going to resume very soon. Now, to resume rail services, we have to put in place measures that will ensure that going forward such an incident never happens in this country.
“And so we have a short-term and a long-term plan. I’m going to address the press specifically on this hopefully next week, mindful of the fact that when it comes to security matters, there are certain categories are people who do not mean well for other people to know exactly what you are doing.
“But rest assured that the primary responsibility of any government as enshrined in our Constitution is the protection of the citizens live and property. This is what this government has always done and this is what this government will continue to do.
“The short-term measures will be put in place very quickly to enable rail services to commence and beyond a period of three months, we will put in place a sustainable plan that will ensure that our rail lines are safe and secure and people can travel on them with their minds and hearts assured of safety,” said Sambo.
