Jonathan, Tinubu, Atiku Condemn latest bombings

President Goodluck Jonathan in Cote D’Ivore to attend an Extra-Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States on the situation in Mali and Guinea-Bissau has condemned today bombings of ThisDay offices in Kaduna and Abuja.

In a statement issued on his behalf by Reuben Abati, his spokesperson, the President described the attack as “ignoble, misguided, horrendous and wicked.”

The President also reaffirmed the commitment of the Federal Government to the continuous upholding of the constitutional right to freedom of expression in general and of press freedom in particular, in the statement.

In Lagos, opposition leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), also condemned the blasts at media houses in Abuja and Kaduna, saying it is a serious attack on Nigeria’s democracy.

He however offered the opposition’s cooperation to President Goodluck Jonathan, to curtail the present dire security situation and end the drift in the polity.

“The attacks on the Abuja office of This Day and the Kaduna offices of This Day, Daily Sun and The Moment adds a different and dangerous dimension to the level of insecurity in our country,” Tinubu said in reaction to the blasts. “We have never had it so bad in this country.”

He said the brazen attack on the three newspapers, in two different locations in the country was red signal that it was time to confront and conquer the precarious political situation in the country, adding that a free press was key to democracy, which, he insisted, underscored an American president’s saying that given a choice between having a government without the press or the press without government, he would glad choose the press.

“The fact that Boko Haram continues to attack buildings and kill innocent Nigerians un-apprehended is a symptom of the failure of intelligence and security breakdown,” he said. “Even then, any government worth its salt ought to be extremely worried about this new but dangerous trend of attacking media houses. It must therefore be jolted to take actions to stem the tide.”

However the former governor of Lagos said it was not time to trade blame, but time to put heads together to face and defeat a common insecurity monster, adding that the opposition was ready to work with President Jonathan.
“We call on all leaders of thought, and all religious and political leaders to rally and let us together find a way to resolve this problem. Whether it is religious or political Boko Haram, we must root it out by ensuring justice and fairness,” Asiwaju Tinubu appealed.

Former Vice-president Atiku Abubakar has expressed his condolences to the management and staff of Leaders and Company Limited, publishers of THISDAY newspaper over bomb explosions, which rocked its Abuja and Kaduna offices and led to the loss of lives.

Atiku in a statement issued by his Media Office which building was also slightly damaged from the impact of the explosion warned that “the attacks on media houses are a dangerous dimension to the insurgency in the country and government needs to be more creative in tackling the menace.”

Atiku, however, commended the prompt response of security agencies and emergency control departments in minimising the damage done by the attack.

“This is not the best of times for us as nation. The palpable fears from these random attacks require that the government should be more creative in solving this security challenge.

According to him, “a situation whereby newspaper houses become the target of deadly bomb attacks is not healthy for the social conscience of the society.”

The Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria, chaired by the publisher of Thisday, also joined the chorus of condemnations in a statement issued by the general secretary, Comfort Obi, publisher of the Source Magazine.

Obi described the attacks as unwarranted, insensitive, barbaric and retrogressive.

“If the current attack is to intimidate the press, we hasten to say that we shall neither be cowed nor intimidated as we shall continue to discharge our professional responsibilities without fear or favour’, she said.