Bomb blasts targeting newspaper offices in Nigeria’s capital Abuja and the northern city of Kaduna on Thursday killed at least six people in the first such attacks targeting the country’s news media.
The explosion in the capital badly damaged an office of national newspaper ThisDay, one of the country’s most prominent, killing at least three people there, according to a rescue official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Circumstances were unclear, but witnesses said it appeared a bomber had driven toward the building through a back gate. In Kaduna, one of the main cities in the north, a bomb went off outside a complex housing a number of newspaper offices, including for ThisDay, and the attacker was said to have driven his car onto the premises, with it later exploding. Police said a suspect in Kaduna was arrested and he was suspected to be a member of Islamist group Boko Haram. A purported spokesman for the Islamist group had recently made threats against newspapers, saying they were being used by authorities to publish stories against Boko Haram. Details of the explosions were sketchy, with a spokesman for the country’s National Emergency Management Agency saying the Abuja blast “occurred inside the premises of national newspaper ThisDay.”
He added that “a preliminary investigation seems to indicate that the explosive device was planted somewhere within the premises, not likely a case of suicide bombing.” Later however, he said various information was emerging and he could not yet draw any firm conclusion. Witnesses reported that it appeared a truck had forced its way through the back gate to enter the printing area. A ThisDay executive said two security guards were killed and five support staff wounded. A rescue official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed three dead, including the bomber. Damage could be seen to the printing press and other areas.
Blast was suicide attack
An explosion at a newspaper office in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Thursday that killed at least three people was a suicide attack, the chairman of the daily ThisDay’s editorial board said. “The suicide bomber came in a jeep,” Olusegun Adeniyi told reporters at the scene. “(Security guards) opened the gate for them … The guy drove in through the gate and rammed into the building and exploded.” The two guards were killed in the blast along with the bomber, he said. Five support staff were wounded. “Fortunately the newsroom is a bit far from the back of the building,” said Adeniyi. “So all the people in the newsroom … are all safe.” The privately owned newspaper is one of Nigeria’s most prominent and influential. It is based in the economic capital Lagos, but has a major operation in the capital Abuja. Another bomb attack at roughly the same time in the northern city of Kaduna targeting a complex that also includes a ThisDay office left at least three people dead as well, making a total of six.
