President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a railway surveillance contract in a bid to avert further attacks of the railway system along the nation’s rail corridor.
The decision was taken following the attack on a Kaduna-Abuja bound train that claimed eight lives leaving scores injured with many other passengers languishing in captivity.
A source was quoted as saying that the contract, which was initially proposed to the Federal Executive Council, was turned down on September 24, 2021, despite the approval by the Bureau for Public Procurement.
He said that “At the September 24, 2021 FEC meeting, the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, presented a memo for the procurement and installation of electronic surveillance equipment system and intervention unit on the Abuja to Kaduna rail line.
“The memo proposed a monitoring and surveillance system that would detect any intrusion on the rail and an emergency response system. However, the memo was discredited and stepped down.
“The manner the memo was stepped down was, indeed, surprising and unusual. Amaechi was explicit on the need and urgency of the security surveillance contract. As a matter of fact, he said that there are security reports from the security agencies indicating that bandits would attack the rail line any time.
“He was very clear about it, but the FEC was just harping on brand; asking Amaechi severally what brand of equipment will be bought, who the manufacturers are and so on. And this is very unusual at FEC meetings. Usually, those small details are handled by Bureau for Public Procurement. And BPP had already approved this contract. The memo had the BPP approval before it came to FEC.”
