Nigeria: Boko Haram claims responsibility for media houses bombing
At least eight people were killed on Thursday when suicide bombers of
Radical Islamic terror group Boko Haram attacked offices of major Nigerian
newspapers in the capital city of Abuja and neighbouring Kaduna state .Radical Islamic terror group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the bombings at offices of major Nigerian newspapers in the capital city of Abuja and neighbouring Kaduna state and warned of more such attacks.
Boko Haram, in a statement published in a news website Premium Times, claimed that the press was not reporting the group accurately.
It said the group attacked Thisday to send a strong message to the media that it would no longer condone reports misrepresenting it in the press, or blaming it for acts it knows nothing about.
"The media in Nigeria are not a problem to us if they do their jobs professionally without taking sides," a spokesman for the group said using the nom de guerre Abu Qaqa, adding
that each time they say something, it is either changed or downplayed.
"But when our enemy says something even without logical proof, it is blown out of proportion," Qaqa said.
"We have repeatedly cautioned reporters and media houses to be professional and objective in their reports. This is a war between us and the Government of Nigeria; unfortunately the media have not been objective and fair in their report of the ongoing war, they chose to take side," he said.
Qaqa further warned of more attacks on media. "We have just started this new campaign against the media and we will not stop here, we will hit the media hard since they have refused to listen to our plea for them to be fair in their reportage," he said.
The Abuja office of Thisday came under heavy attack when a suicide bomber rammed his car into the building housing the media outfit's press triggering an explosion.
Three support staff of the company including security men were killed in Abuja.A reporter Senator Iroegbu who sustained minor injuries said the effect reverberated at every part of the building where he was and smoke filled everywhere forcing him to escape.
"The roof of the building was blown off, company and staff vehicles were also destroyed. I am certainly sure of the death of the two security men at the gate," he said.
