Nasir el-Rufai, the Governor of Kaduna State, said he warned Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister for Transportation, against allowing trains to operate in the state at night.

El-Rufai was speaking to a survivor of the Abuja-Kaduna rail attack on Wednesday when he made the statement. The governor blamed the minister for not heeding his advice.

“We told the minister to stop operating the trains after 5pm. The evening train, we said they should discontinue it because we knew that they were likely to attack in the night,” El Rufai told the survivor as he apologised.

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According to el-Rufai, his government knew that the railway tracks would be at risk at night and the minister was aware of the risk.

Amaechi had told journalists that he knew of the security threat to the trains and had asked for approval to acquire digital security equipment.

“We knew what the problem would be. We knew we needed to have digital security equipment. If we had those equipment, you will see anybody on that track,” he said on Wednesday.

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“I warned that lives would be lost. Now lives are lost! Eight persons dead, 25 persons in the hospital. We don’t even know how many persons have been kidnapped. The cost of that equipment is just N 3 billion. The cost of what we’ve lost is more than N3 billion. We did not ask for money. We only asked for approval.

“When you come with sincerity to government and your colleagues and people are stopping you, it is annoying.”

A train conveying passengers from Abuja to Kaduna on Monday was halted when gunmen blew it up a few kilometres to the Rigasa Train Station in the Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State, leading to the death and disappearance of many passengers.