Former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu has cancelled the 13th birthday colloquium in honour of victims of the Kaduna-Abuja train attacked by bandits.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Chieftain announced this on Tuesday while speaking on stage at Eko Hotel and Suites where guests and well-wishers were already seated and gathered for the event.
He described the train attack as a national tragedy and urged the guests to go home and pray for the victims.
Tinubu added that the attack “calls for a very serious sober reflection,” and he cannot be dancing and celebrating after such a tragic event.
“For me to be here celebrating, dancing and enjoying myself doesn’t show enough concern of a statesman and a senior citizen of this country.
“This event should not be holding. I have consulted with the people you see around me here and they’ve agreed with me and being a very highly committed democrat, I have given myself to their suggestion that they agreed that this event be cancelled.”
Tinubu alongside hundreds of others at the event observed one-minute silence for the lives lost in the spirit of “national tragedy and concern,” he said.
Dignitaries at the event include Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Kaduna State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje; Osun State Governor Gboyega Oyetola; APC Chieftain and former Ogun State Governor, Segun Osoba; Lagos State deputy Governor Femi Hamzat, among others.
Following the bandits’ attack on an Abuja-Kaduna-bound train conveying hundreds of travellers. Many of the travelers were killed in the attack and others were abducted.
Security agents have been deployed to the scene while the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has suspended train operations along the Abuja-Kaduna route till further notice.
Meanwhile, the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Lucky Irabor, the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali, Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi have been to the scene of the attack.
