Govs, ministers, others condemn bombings

THE bombing of two newspapers’ offices on Thursday has drawn sharp condemnations from some governors and other political leaders.

A suicide bomber reportedly detonated a car loaded with explosives at the Abuja office of ThisDay while another threw a bomb at a building housing ThisDay, Daily Sun and The Moment in Kaduna.

At least six persons were said to have been killed and many injured in the attacks.

Governors Patrick Yakowa (Kaduna), Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Theodore Orji (Abia), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Sullivan Chime (Enugu) and Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo) expressed their shock over the bombings.

Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, his Interior Ministry counterpart, Mr. Abba Moro, and former Federal Territory Minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, regretted that the media houses were targeted by terrorists.

Deputy President of the Senate, Mr. Ike Ekweremadu; Leader of the Senate, Mr. Victor Ndoma-Egba; and former Abia State Governor Orji Kalu also lamented the attacks.

Yakowa, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Reuben Buhari, said he was saddened by the attacks.

“The governor also commiserate with the families of all those who lost their lives in the explosion, while wishing those injured a quick recovery,” he said.

Fashola said, “The development remind us as a country of the urgent need to work out strategies to address the growing cases of bomb attacks and security challenges, not just in the northern parts of our country, but also in other parts as the cases might be.”

Orji urged Nigerian journalists not to be discouraged by the attacks as he asked security agencies to apprehend those responsible for the terrorist acts.

Aregbesola said, “This is worrisome for us. It is confounding.

“We must admit how doomed we are when institutions such as media houses that inform, educate and set agenda for our democracy become targets of such evil attacks.”

On their part, Ajimobi and Obi said it was cowardice for the bombers to resort to killing people and destroying property.

They reminded the perpetrators of the dastardly acts that they were hurting the society where their children are living, calling on them to have a rethink.

Mimiko, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Eni Akinsola, urged well-meaning Nigerians to plead with the perpetrators to have “a rethink and show some respect for human lives and stop making children orphans, husbands widowers and wives, widows”.

Chime urged ThisDay not to be deterred by the incident but to continue rendering service to the nation through qualitative reporting.

Maku said the acts of terror on innocent Nigerians in parts of the country were aimed at destabilising government’s efforts at transforming the economy.

He called on the media to desist from giving undue attention to “terrorists and their illicit acts”, urging them to collaborate with relevant agencies to expose the people behind the heinous attacks.

Moro expressed his shock and sadness over the blasts, describing them as “the height of callousness by those determined to throw the entire country into panic”.

El-Rufai urged the government to be sincere about tackling terrorism in the country.

Ekweremadu and Ndoma-Egba decried the security challenges facing the country.

The Deputy Senate President said, “The Nigerian media industry has distinguished itself in not only fighting for and entrenching the current democratic dispensation, even at very high sacrifices, but has as well stood out as a bastion of our unity and the moral voice of our society.”

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Emeka Ihedioha, commiserated with the publishers, management and staff of the affected newspapers over the attack.

Ndoma-Egba said, “Today is a sad chapter in the history of Nigeria. We never thought things would get to a point where the defenders of democracy and the rights of the ordinary citizens of this country would ever come under attack.”

Kalu said, “It is unfortunate that this agent of unity is now the focus of those who do not want the country to progress.”