Several passengers were yesterday stranded after a passenger train heading from Warri to Itakpe derailed in Kogi forest.
The passengers were said to have abandoned the train for fear of being taken hostage by bandits.
It was learnt that the train which left Warri in the early hours of yesterday derailed at about noon in the thick forest between Ajaokuta and Itakpe.
As of 5pm, the respite was yet to be sent to the stranded passengers.
A former Chairman of the Bayelsa Vigilante Agency, Prince Douye Koroye, who was in VIP told an online platform that suspected terrorists cut the rail line which made the train derail at a high speed.
Koroye, who was also a former Special Adviser to the Bayelsa State Government on Youth and Community Development, said that four coaches and the head coach of the train are damaged beyond repair.
He said that the stranded and agitated passengers were told to remain in the train for about two and a half hours without help for the Nigeria Railway Corporation.
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He said, “Many passengers are stranded in the bush and are being guarded by the security team in the train.”
He said after the long wait for a rescue that did not come, the first set of passengers including him took to the forest and trekked for a long time before they got to the road to take a vehicle to Itakpe.
He said, “It was God that saved us. I was coming to Abuja on the Warri-Itakpe train. Unusually, the train left very early. We got to Ajaokuta, and after some time, I just saw that the train derailed. It was a major accident. It was like what happened in Kaduna. Some criminals cut the rail line and the train sped into it a derailed.
“We were about 300 to 400 and the sad thing was that there was no network: it was in the middle of the forest. The train derailed at about 12.15pm and four coaches, including the head coach, got damaged.
“After spending about two hours, some of the trapped passengers opted to trek through the bush against warning by security men to escape being caught by terrorists in the train.
“Train derailed off track, believed to be masterminded by terrorists, spent an hour in the bush, fear, and panic finally took the risk, walked through the bush, despite security men warning and got to where I took the vehicle, now going to Abuja from Lokoja.
