 The National Rail Hacker Attack on Passenger Tray. The big questions are, who did it and what is the government going to do about it? Namdi Khanu pleads not guilty to charges of treason. A lot of drama on his stay in court, as DSS bars senior members of O'Hanei Zendibu and then lawyers. We would also be looking at those and also analyzing the major stories on the news this morning. Good morning, thanks for joining us on the breakfast. Friday morning here on PLOS TV Africa, it's been a very interesting week and we thank you for staying with us all through the week. I am Osao Ghi, O'Gbon. And I am Messier Boppol, it's good to have you join us. How are you this morning? Very well, it's a Friday. Absolutely, and I know Gideon Johnson is eager to say thank God it's Friday once he joins us. But before that let's of course start with top trending stories and the biggest conversation is going on across the country and maybe across the world this morning. We'll start with one of the things we just mentioned, the attack on the Abu Jaqaduna rail line. Former Senator Shehu San was one of the people who put the information out saying it was on that train and of course videos and pictures emerged showing the damage done to the rail line and to the train itself. The story says that bombs were set on the rail line by bandits and when those bombs exploded it destroyed the front section of the train and of course they continued to also fire weapons at the driver and at the train itself. Luckily no one was hurt and they were able to make it I believe to safety. And there you have pictures of the damaged train and it makes you then wonder what would have happened if the train was stopped successfully and they were able to gain access to the train. If more people would have been kidnapped, if people would have been killed how much money and valuables would have been taken also in the process and those are some of the very very scary aspects of it. If it was a car very likely that would have been the story but this is a train and luckily they were able to make it at least to some extent of safety before the train eventually stopped. Now you know it just reminds me of just last month, about last month where you had the joint committee on land and transport coming to Lagos to inspect the Lagos Inverdon railway and I actually put a question to the director, the managing director of the corporation at the time asking him what measures have been put in place to protect the tracks and the clips against attack. That's because at the time we were on board on that particular train there was an imminent threat. You might not be anything necessarily serious at the time because you could find some teenagers who were throwing stones and all sort of stuff and so that actually I became very curious. It's quite unfortunate to see that happen but the big question still remains maybe one would be thinking that following all of the attacks I mean following all of the theft, or call it theft, vandalism on the rail tracks across the country especially where you have railways we would have been proactive. We would have started looking at having measures to ensure that the tracks are protected. Yes I know that there's also protection, security provided before you board checking in and all of that but what happens because the railway, this track cuts across residential areas I'm thinking anyone can actually launch an attack anyone could just feel very dissatisfied, it could be anybody just as it happened the other day. So as soon as I saw the particular report it just reminds me of the question and I act and as usual there's always an answer but it's just an answer or we're very deliberate. Alright let's quickly watch a very short clip and then I'll share my thoughts on that when we come back. Complete. Alright and that's pictures and a short video showing the damage to the rail track that eventually of course we were speaking about and you can already tell how powerful these explosives are to be able to tear through the thickness of that metal and almost stop the train from moving. It's a really really scary picture and to be honest and this is me personally saying it's not to sound like a negative person but I had in the past imagined that these things will happen mostly because of the way like you said the amount of security and the amount of effort that we actually put in to ensure that these aspects are checked and I didn't see that we had done enough as a country to ensure that we had completely secured everyone who was going to be on a train across Nigeria, especially along the Abu Jaqaduna Highway Abu Jaqaduna rail line. So I'd expected that this will happen but what this really says now is that people are scared to travel by road because they don't have money for ransom and they also want to be victims of the bandits and so they decide to go by train. Now the railway corporation has suspended rail travel along that road I believe and it means that you are forced back to the road if you have to go between Abu Jaqaduna and it's either you have enough money for ransom or you have very very strong prayers to be able to make it back and forth. I mean what other options do Nigerians have? You pray that you can make it home along that route without being kidnapped on the road. It might also be one of the reasons the bandits have carried out this attack and I hope we're going to be speaking with you how to get to this morning to understand if this shows your capabilities or your frustration to understand exactly what is playing out here. Maybe they're trying to get people back on the road or they really were just trying to take advantage of the lack of security. If you remember also a couple of years ago I think this happens luxurious buses going from Benin to Lagos or any part of the country used to have armed men on board. I think it still happens. You know armed with AK-47 rifles and all of that. So do we then need to get armed men on board the trains or not? Railway isn't safe, road isn't safe. You might say okay well air travel is safer but not for a large percentage of Nigerians can't afford to travel by air and also the government still hasn't been able to give Nigerians 100% clarity that the bandits do not have high calibred anti-aircraft weapons that makes our air travel completely safe. You know there's this thing that the phrase experience is the best teacher but over time that's been faulted saying leveraging on other people's experience would be the best teacher. Now one would expect that the Nigerian government yes it's a good development was saying okay well we have the railways working we're trying to improve that to have other means of transportation but you also need to look at it way back. You know the locomotive, the rail train has always been you know target for terrorists although we still call them bandits in this part of our climb. Yes so one would expect that we should understand that as soon as we have all of these facilities it's important that we begin to put out security measures you know to ensure that the railway system is protected because it will happen especially at a time where you have a lot of insecurity issues so what happens why have we taken that action why have we taken that step why have we acted because you would begin to look at antecedent not necessarily in Nigeria but in other parts of the world and then you begin to plan towards ensuring that that does not become but as usual we are deploying security officers across and then we're going to have but none. Well we'll see what the government's response is to this the final thing I'll say on this is you know we borrowed billions of dollars which we still have to pay currently they are suspended so I'm not sure what that means because we borrowed billions of dollars but the thing is no matter how much money you borrow in an environment that is not secure there would never be development so you borrow billions and billions of dollars trillions even of dollars if you cannot secure the environment that those funds are going to be invested in you're wasting your time and you're wasting your money so are you saying the priority over time has not been very right yes it has to be security before we start getting into I mean both you know can work hand in hand you can do both at the same time but security is utmost importance no matter what you build if it's not in a secure environment nobody is going to be going there and there will be no business that will be done successfully in those areas I totally agree with you all right moving on from the project counter now we'll be talking a little bit more about that as a part of our discussions this morning now let's talk about the trial of Namdikano he eventually did make it to court yesterday and you must have seen pictures and videos on the internet but there was a little bit of drama after lawyers and journalists were barred from entering the courtroom stories that I saw said that they had stopped every court case from going on until about 2 p.m. when they were sure that they were either done or they were done with Namdikano's case or at least you know some progress had been made and there was some controversy seeing men of the DSS in court ensuring that nobody enters the courtroom including some lawyers meant to be representing Namdikano and so yes there was some controversy there some people have said maybe it was just you know think the DSS does to instill fear and to you know make all you know maybe to make the environment safe the caliber of a person that they bring into court nobody really knows exactly what the reason is but of course that was some of the drama that I caught yesterday well you can take out the fact that the court is a public place and we are in a democratic dispensation and that doesn't really tell well of us because at some point it's already beginning to feel like we're probably in a military kind of era and that's not correct so it caused a lot of concern at this point in time I'm totally really really disappointed personally that's my opinion and you know one would expect better why would you not allow journalists in why would you not allow the lawyers in I mean we should if you think that these persons would actually pose a serious threat or you feel that anything can happen that's the more reason why we should have you know some sort of security measures I mean they should be able to find all the means because the excuse cannot be the fact that oh you know XYZ is going to happen that's not an excuse we'll continue to follow up most important is the call for a free and fair trial regardless of whether they want journalists in or not regardless of how much DSS presents it has to be a free and fair trial and that's what really is the most important you're shocked I am really not because it's not the first time that the DSS is definitely not the first time that we're seeing them acting this way it's not the first time that we're seeing security agencies disrespecting you know the courts in any way if you remember before he was eventually granted Bill Long a couple years ago there was some drama in court where he was they tried to rearrest him there were scuffles, punches being thrown tears, clothes being torn right in the courtroom he was totally disrespectful so it's not the first time anyway our final top trend in the story this morning moves to the United States where former US President Donald Trump has of course had with plans to launch his own social media network and it's called Truth Social he claims this is to give a voice and give a space where people can air their views that will be completely free from the shackles of the stereotype on the regular media organizations the Facebook and the Twitter's of this world if you remember after the insurrection on the 6th of January I believe yes his social media account was deleted and he was barred from Facebook and from Twitter and you can still see even till date that there are people who are still suffering some of those you know the hammers of Twitter and Facebook if you quarter thing by Donald Trump or you post some of the things that he's speaking about you could be flagged down yeah you could be flagged and either suspended and I saw someone say something like that this morning that their account was also suspended because they posted a message from you know Donald Trump and so he is talking about Trump rather truth social very likely will be launched in the first quarter of 2022 but it's already available for pre-order on Apple I believe and you know the app stores so if you are a fan of Donald Trump or you want to hear from his social media account you cannot you know I feel that this is a competition even talking about how relevant this person is in the whole political conversation I cannot find Donald Trump very interesting trust me and I feel like this is a capitalist system so it's fine it allows for competition he has actually stated his reason why he is going to have that so it's not a big deal but I'm sure that for everything that you have there should be some form of you know rule I mean some guidelines okay so we'll be looking out for what exactly that will be would it be also a space that would allow for the abuse of human rights and all sort of issues as it were hopefully you know it turns out good but I know that that's going to have a lot of followership because even in Nigeria you have a lot of people who are fans of Donald Trump it would just be interesting to see this type of conversations that would be hard on that site you know and if it's going to be open to everyone or just going to be open to people who really are it's the same thing we talked about with cool I think it's going to really be this is me thinking right now I think it's cool here you know I think it's really going to be about you know the opposition apparently around the current government especially in the United States of America so it's really really going to be about you know opposition kind of stuff you find that a lot even in our space where you have you know the opposition so it's rather going to be like having an opposition in the media space you know social media will be encountering all of the things that they are doing or speaking against all of the ills and that might also be a strategy because he said he has an interest in coming through running again so that might just be a big tool for him you know to come back it would be interesting to see and also one of the things that he mentioned he says in court we live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter yet your favorite American president has been silenced this is unacceptable and you know if you listen to that you might say yeah he does have a point you know with that because there are and it's not just the Taliban on Facebook and on Twitter you would see that there are some accounts there are some pedophile accounts that have not been silenced there are some pages there are some channels that you see and you're completely shocked that these things exist on these platforms but I think it was mostly because and of course including the Taliban and some of their members I think it's mostly because of the danger that it posed and his rhetoric and his narratives and the things that he was doing and the things he was saying rather the danger that it posed to the American society and that's why I believe those social media giants decided to take that action including of course the lives that were lost in the insurrection on the 6th of January those are the reasons that they eventually had to take that action the Taliban and being on Twitter or on Facebook doesn't necessarily pose an immediate danger to the American society and so they can you know maybe doesn't care and really just tells you that American interests would always come first to the American government I don't even think it's about the Americans usually you know when state actors come together they would always act in their interest that's what it is so I don't know maybe we'll make an exception for Nigeria because if we come together as you know countries you would always think about your interest first home interest before every other interest even though although we all constantly talk about you know global globalization you know global prosperity and all of that but at the end of the day selfishness is always what it is it's not where we need to go it's for the Nigerians do you think we'll always put ourself first no I think we put I think the Nigerian government puts itself the people in government first not the Nigerian state not the Nigerian people some sort of interest however alright we need to go we'll take a short break when we come back Gili Johnson joins us with Off the Press to share stories his views rather on the major stories making headlines across the country this morning