An Abuja-bound train in the early hours of Wednesday reportedly crashed into ‘stray’ cows on its track, killing 60 of them as their herders fled.

Former senator of the Kaduna Central Constituency in the Federal House of Representative, Shehu Sani, made the disclosure in a tweet around noon.

According to the ex-lawmaker, the train came to halt in the bush and later continued the journey.

“Today, the Kaduna-Abuja morning train of which I happened to be a passenger killed over 60 cows that strayed along the tracks before the train finally stopped in the bush and we later moved on.

‘The herdsmen ran into the bush reigning [sic] curses. I call [sic] on the railway authorities to reach out to the Chief of Rijana Village and [sic] address the issues before we return to face their anger… biko,” Sani posted on Twitter.

Reacting to the news, Director of the Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department, African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Martin Fregene, called on the Federal Government to build ranches across the country to prevent such occurrence.

“About time Nigeria builds cattle ranches all across the country. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme can be expanded to cattle ranching.

“At the carrying rate of one cow per hectare with improved forages, we can set up 500 -1,000 hectare ranches for groups of herded from Kano to Yobe to Niger,” Fregene wrote.

SOURCE: AGRONIGERIA