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.