Saturday, April 28, 2012

Media Rights Agenda condemns Bombing of offices of ThisDay and other newspapers

Media Rights Agenda condemns
Bombing of offices of ThisDay and other
newspapers
Ayodele Samuel,Lagos

Media
Rights Agenda (MRA) has condemned
today's bombings of the offices of
ThisDay newspapers in Abuja and
Kaduna as
well as the offices of The Sun and The Moment newspapers in an apparently
coordinated plan. The Abuja office of the newspaper was
bombed at about 11.30 this morning
with scores of lives reportedly lost while
several others were injured. At
about the same time, a building in
Kaduna, housing 'Thisday', 'Sun' and 'The
Moment' newspapers, was also bombed
with no less than three deaths also
reported at the incident. In a statement on behalf of the
organization, MRA's executive director,
Mr.
Edetaen Ojo condemned what he called
"a cowardly and dastardly" attack on
media freedom and a shocking disregard for human life. He said: "We are extremely concerned
by the apparent helplessness of the
Federal Government as well as the law
enforcement and security agencies in
the face of this relentless onslaught on
the Nigerian people which has caused hundreds of innocent citizens
their lives in the last several
months." Mr. Ojo called on the Federal
Government to live up to its primary
responsibility of ensuring the security
and welfare of the people saying
that it appeared to have failed woefully
in this regard. He asked the Government to devote all
the resources at its disposal to find
those responsible for these ongoing acts
of terrorism and bring them to
justice in order to end this climate of
fear and impunity which has paralyzed governance, commercial and
social activities in many parts of the
country.

Tinubu condemns blasts at media houses


Ayodele Samuel,Lagos
: Tinubu Media Office Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, national leader of
the Action Congress of
Nigeria (ACN), has 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.
He assured the president that the opposition was ready to work with
him on the insecurity question, but
stressed that the president must consult
wide on this rather delicate issue.
"We in the opposition are ready and
willing to cooperate with the president to solve this problem," he
offered.  "But the president must
consult wide and show good faith in a
reasoned
and collective solution.  That is the way
we can solve the problem together." Asiwaju Tinubu condoled with the
management and staff of the
newspapers involved and sympathised
with the victims of the blast.
"I wish to sympathise and condole with
everyone affected by this avoidable tragedy.  May God comfort
them
all.