General
SERAP Sues FG Over Failure to Rescue Train Attack Victims
By Adedapo Adesanya
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against the federal government over its failure to protect the rights to life, security, and dignity of the victims of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack, and the failure to secure the safe release of those held captive by the terrorists.
The suit followed reports that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) failed to approve funds for surveillance equipment that could have helped to prevent the train attack.
Business Post had reported that terrorists had attacked the AK9 Abuja–Kaduna train on March 28, killing at least nine people, wounding several others, and abducting an unknown number of passengers.
The victims have remained with the terrorists for a month despite repeated appeals for the government to free them from captivity.
In the suit No ECW/CCJ/APP/20/22 filed last week before the ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja, SERAP is, therefore, seeking “a declaration that the train attack, abductions and killings of passengers by terrorists amount to a failure by the government to protect Nigerians, and to prevent these grave human rights violations.”
The body is also seeking “an order directing the Buhari government to protect, promote, and fulfil the human rights of Nigerians, including travellers across the country, by ensuring adequate security and taking measures to prevent attacks.”
SERAP is seeking “an order directing the Buhari government to urgently find and identify all the passengers, victims and their families, and to pay adequate monetary compensation of N50 million to each of the passengers and victims and their families.”
In the suit filed together with an application for an expedited hearing, SERAP is arguing that “The Buhari government has a legal duty to protect individuals from real and immediate risks to their lives and security caused by actions of third parties such as terrorists.”
It is also arguing that “a fundamental notion of contemporary human rights law is that victims of violations such as the victims of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack enjoy an independent right to effective remedies. Rights without remedies are ineffectual, rendering illusory the government’s duty to protect such rights.”
According to SERAP, “the Buhari government has failed to protect the constitutionally and internationally guaranteed rights of the victims of the train attack to life, dignity and security, and their right to an effective remedy.”
The suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers, Mr Kolawole Oluwadare and Miss Opeyemi Owolabi, read in part: “The Buhari government is under a legal obligation to protect the life of every citizen in the country.
“Remedies logically should be proportionate to the gravity of the harm or violations caused by the government and its agents or by terrorists or unknown perpetrators.
“Human life has a special value and dignity which requires legal protection. It is the principle of international law, and even a general conception of law, that any breach of an engagement involves an obligation to make reparation.
“The officials of the Buhari government have publicly stated that they knew or had information that an attack on the train was imminent but the government failed and/or neglected to take measures to prevent the train attack.
“The government will still be held accountable for failing or neglecting to guarantee and protect human rights regardless of whether such violations are directly or indirectly attributable to the government or its officials.
“The Buhari government has an obligation to promote and protect the rights to life, security and dignity. This obligation means that the government must create an enabling environment that facilitates the enjoyment of these rights by the people.
“The failure of the Buhari government to protect and guarantee the rights to life, security, liberty and dignity of the passengers and victims of the train attack violates the provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Nigeria is a state party.
“The Buhari government and the Nigeria Railway Corporation had ignored several warnings in the past to take preventive measures to provide adequate security for the train services, and to suspend late rail services to prevent attack by terrorists and to ensure the security and safety of passengers.”
“Few days before the train attack, some terrorists had gained control of and entered the Kaduna airport in a daring attack. The Buhari government failed or refused to take preventive measures to ensure adequate security in the airport and its surrounding, and to prevent the attack on the train.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
President Bola Tinubu has approved the immediate dissolution of the Presidential Implementation Committee (PIC) on the Alienation of Federal Government Properties.
According to a release by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, henceforth, all matters relating to the activities of the committee would be coordinated by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).
“After careful consideration, the government has noted that the activities of the PIC had extended beyond its original mandate, resulting in multiple litigations across the country, and the continued existence of the committee is no longer justified,” the statement noted.
The PIC was established in 2000 during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to oversee the privatisation, sale, and lease of federal government landed assets under the government’s monetisation policy.
Its membership comprised the then Minister of Housing as Chairperson, alongside representatives from the Ministries of Transportation, Justice, Health, Agriculture, and the Nigeria Police Force.
Professor P.T Ahire, then a Deputy Director in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, served as the pioneer Secretary. Other members were drawn from both the public and private sectors.
On March 22, 2001, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the establishment of a Panel of Inquiry to produce a White Paper to guide the implementation of its recommendations.
The panel worked for 21 months before submitting its report, and after careful consideration, the government has noted that the activities of the PIC had extended beyond its original mandate, resulting in multiple litigations across the country, and the continued existence of the Committee is no longer justified.
Accordingly, the President directed the dissolution of the PIC and that the Attorney General of the Federation coordinate its activities with effect from November 5, 2025.
Following the President’s directive, the PIC stands dissolved, and the erstwhile Secretary, Mr B. S Dutsin-Ma, has been directed to cease acting on behalf of the committee and the Federal Government on related matters.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The spiritual father and chairman of the Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church Worldwide, Ayo Ni O, His Most Eminence Prophet Emmanuel Adewale Abiodun Alogbo, has died at the age of 93.
The revered cleric, whose demise was announced today, Thursday, July 30, 2026, via a circular from the church, was the Supreme Head of C&S Unification Church of Nigeria.
In the notice signed by CSMC Secretary-General, Snr. Sp. Ap. Prophet Anthony Olusesan Samaye, disclosed that the church leader breathed his last peacefully in the early hours of today, “surrounded by his family members and all his domestic staff at his residence.”
It was stated that his passing occurred at about 2:10 am at his residence in Ijaiye Ojokoro, Lagos.
“With gratitude to God Almighty for a life well spent, on behalf of the Board of Trustees and the entire church, I write to inform you all that our Spiritual Father, His Most Eminence, Prophet (Dr.) Emmanuel Adewale Abiodun Alogbo, was called to glory in the early hours of today, July 30, 2026, at around 2:10 am,” a part of the disclosure, addressed to the church’s management committee, district chairmen, conference supervisors, mission directors, church elders, zonal secretaries and ministers-in-charge of parishes worldwide, said.
The statement, which prayed for God to grant the “church the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss,” said daily prayer sessions would be held for seven days from 5 pm at the late cleric’s residence located at Plot 1, Alogbo Close, off Ahmadiyya Bus Stop, Ijaiye Ojokoro, Lagos, noting that burial arrangements would be announced later.
By Sani Abdulrazak, PhD
Thrilling it is to realise that some journeys answer questions you never knew you were asking. Mine happened with no political prism through which to interpret every urban developmental project. Instead, it manifested with a simple curiosity: what does rural Kaduna look like today vis-à-vis three years prior? That part of Kaduna where press conferences are neither held nor dominate social media timelines, but the Kaduna where dawn breaks over farmlands, where markets awaken to the aroma of roasted maize, where children trek to school, and where government is not judged by eloquent speeches but by tangible presence.
If there is one thing I have learned from my travel experience to most rural communities within the 23 local government areas of Kaduna state, it is the fact that these communities have an uncanny way of telling the truth. They have little patience for rhetoric. A bridge either exists or it doesn’t. A classroom either shelters learning or it doesn’t. A health centre either treats patients or remains another neglected structure awaiting the next campaign season. These places are bluntly earnest; poor custodians of propaganda, I call them. They will always remain refreshingly fascinating because evidence is a currency there and it strips governance of embellishment.
One transformational change you can’t miss in the last three years in almost all the rural communities within Kaduna state is education. We speak of schools in cities through the prism of budgets and policies, but in villages, they speak of the child who no longer studies under the tree, the teacher who finally has a conducive classroom, and the parent whose greatest inheritance is no longer a prayer alone. It will interest us to know that across Kaduna State, more than 736 new classrooms have been constructed, while over 1,200 others have been rehabilitated. Add to this the completion of 62 secondary schools, another 50 under construction, and the establishment of 102 new schools alongside the rehabilitation of 170 existing ones under the Reaching Out-of-School Children programme, and the picture begins to assume clearer contours. Statistics, however, are notoriously reticent. They seldom tell you what they have witnessed.
A visit to Tudun Biri will surely convince you. For many Nigerians, the community became known through an episode everyone wished had never happened. Yet communities, like human beings, deserve the opportunity to write new chapters. Today, a new school stands there, as a quiet repudiation of despair. Watching children gather where sorrow once held sway, I was reminded that development is sometimes the art of replacing painful memories with hopeful possibilities. The good people of Kwoi today are living their dream, all thanks to the Proverbial Lannister of Kaduna State, Governor Uba Sani. Roads like Hospital Road, Sabon Gari Road, Audu Tilo Road, Doctor Sani Road, Kpop Ham Palace Road and the Kwoi-Gora Road have done more than alter the landscape of Kwoi; they have recalibrated daily life. They shorten journeys, connect communities and restore the simple dignity of movement. Kwoi residents, within the last three years, describe this giant developmental stride in minutes saved, transport fares reduced, and opportunities regained.
Furthermore, across the 23 local government areas of Kaduna State, 255 Primary Healthcare Centres have been upgraded to Level II status. Another 23 Centres of Excellence and 15 General Hospitals have equally received significant upgrades. These are figures easily read and quickly forgotten. Yet behind every digit lies a heartbeat. Somewhere, an expectant mother reaches skilled care without travelling impossible distances. In another village, a child receives treatment before a preventable illness becomes irreversible. Good healthcare is rarely dramatic; its greatest triumphs are the tragedies that never happen.
Nothing intrigued me the most like the philosophy underpinning Project 255. There is something profoundly democratic about the notion that every one of Kaduna State’s 255 wards deserves visible development. It is an acknowledgement that governance should not become an urban monopoly. Whether in Dogon Dawa, where schools have been rehabilitated, Zonzon, where classrooms have regained life, or other communities benefiting from roads, bridges, electrification and boreholes, the underlying message remains unmistakable: development should travel the last mile. The ancient heartbeat of rural Kaduna is undoubtedly agriculture, and it appears to be rediscovering its rhythm as well. Improved security has encouraged many farmers to return to lands once abandoned, while better rural infrastructure is gradually easing access to markets. Free fertiliser distribution to rural farmers is now becoming an annual event. Governor Uba Sani believes that Rural development, in truth, is not a peripheral conversation; it is the fulcrum upon which sustainable development balances.
None of this suggests that rural Kaduna has arrived at some idyllic destination. Far from it. There are still communities yearning for potable water, better electricity, additional schools, more healthcare personnel and improved infrastructure. Development has never been a destination reached by a single administration; it is an enduring pilgrimage requiring consistency, courage and continuity. But objectivity demands something equally important: the willingness to acknowledge progress where it is evident. Taking the pulse of rural Kaduna left me with an impression that statistics alone could never adequately convey.
That, for most objective students of governance and policy, is the most reliable way to measure a government’s impact, not by the eloquence of its promises nor the intensity of political debates, but by the ordinary experiences of ordinary people. The pulse of rural Kaduna is not yet the pulse of perfection. But it is steady. It is discernible. And, for anyone willing to leave the comfort of assumptions and listen closely, it tells a story worth hearing.
Sani Abdulrazak, PhD, is a writer, researcher and public affairs analyst based in Zaria, Kaduna State
