Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s government says it is working with the Nigerian Railway Corporation to get the manifest of passengers on the train bombed by bandits.

“As stated yesterday, the Kaduna state government is still liaising with the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to ascertain the list from the passengers manifest for efficient tracking,” said Samuel Aruwan, the commissioner of internal security and home affairs, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.

The Kaduna government added that security forces had completed the evacuation of passengers on the Kaduna-bound train from Abuja.

This was disclosed by officials of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and the Nigerian Red Cross.

Mr Aruwan explained that the passengers were evacuated from different hard-to-reach areas in forests and rocky locations in Audujongom, off the Kaduna-Abuja road, while injured passengers were taken to hospitals.

On Monday, the train was conveying passengers from Abuja to Kaduna when it was attacked by bandits in Kaduna, leaving many passengers injured.

Several other passengers were said to have been kidnapped by the bandits.

Mr Aruwan noted that Mr El-Rufai, who commended those who participated in the evacuation, appealed to the hospitals to attend to the victims.

The governor also directed the state’s health ministry to contact the hospitals as the government will bear the cost of their treatment.

The commissioner said search-and-rescue operations were in progress while the government had mobilised troops to the attack scene.