Herder counts losses as train kills 60 cows, 29 sheep

A herder in the outskirts of Bwari town in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Dauji Saidu, is still counting his losses as a single coach train rammed into his animals as they were crossing a railway bridge in the area. Sixty cows and 29 sheep were said to have been killed by the train. […]

A herder in the outskirts of Bwari town in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Dauji Saidu, is still counting his losses as a single coach train rammed into his animals as they were crossing a railway bridge in the area.
Sixty cows and 29 sheep were said to have been killed by the train.
Daily Trust learnt that the incident happened last Sunday between Garam and Idah villages, both bordering Bwari in the FCT.
Leader of the FCT branch of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Alhaji Muhammad Bello Ardon Jiwa, who confirmed the incident, said it followed a downpour a day before.
The Fulani leader said an earlier downpour had flooded the river, making the part where their animals usually crossed impassable, thereby forcing the herder, one Alhaji Dauji Saidu, to herd his animals onto the railway-bridge to cross.
“But unknown to him, a train was approaching and eventually ran over the animals,’’ he explained.
He said the herder was also injured in the process and was taken to a hospital at Kagarko in Kaduna State.
He said the matter was reported at the Tafa police divisional headquarters and that representatives of the company handling the rail project have visited the palace of the district head of Idah for condolence and promised to provide assistance to the owner of the animals.
When contacted, the Tafa Divisional Police Officer (DPO) declined comment on the incident.
 However, a senior official of the China Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation (CCECC), who spoke to our reporter on condition of anonymity at their Idu headquarters in Abuja, explained that the single coach train involved in the incident was coming from Kaduna axis in company of a commissioner of police in charge of the railway, who was on a monitoring tour of the rout ahead of its commissioning later in the year.
While blaming the herder for using the rail-bridge to get his animals across the river, he said the company had approached the owner of the animals and that they would assist him.