SECURITY ALERT WITH JIDE

Two die as blasts hit newspaper offices in Abuja and Kaduna.

At least people have been confirmed dead in a bomb blast at the Thisday newspaper office in Abuja, according to Segun Adeniyi, Chairman of the paper’s Editorial board, while a second explosion that affected the same company, the Sun and the Moment newspaper offices went off in the city of Kaduna.
The explosion in Abuja occurred around 11:30am on Thursday at the offices of ThisDay.
Mr Adeniyi who confirmed that the incidence in Abuja was a suicide bombing said that two men disguised as visitors had driven into the Thisday premises in and and detonated the bomb before the security officers could suspect or stop them.
He said five other person who sustained injuries from the incidence are been treated in a hospital in Abuja.
An official of  Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said the explosion in Thisday office Abuja was caused by a bomb planted inside the newspaper’s office.
“It’s true there was an explosion at Jabi (district),” NEMA official, Yushau Shuaib said
“NEMA officials are on the ground,” said he. “They are trying to move those injured to the hospitals, but we don’t have any information on casualties yet.”
The agency in an initial statement had said that it did not believe it was a suicide bombing.
Police and paramilitary were on the scene and had surrounded the offices where the blast had taken place. An Associated Press new agency reporter who heard the explosion said it was very large.
Witnesses said another blast in the city of Kaduna hit the Sun newspaper office there.
Response from Government
The Deputy President of Senate, Ike Ekweremadu has condemned in strong terms the bomb attacks on Thisday and Sun Offices in Abuja and Kaduna.
Mr Ekweremadu who described the attack as a grievous affront on the Nigerian people urged Nigerians to unite in their resistance against all acts of terror.
He said: “The Nigerian media industry has distinguished itself in not only fighting for and entrenching the current democratic dispensation, even at very high sacrifices, but has as well stood out as a bastion of our unity and the moral voice of our society.
“An attack on the media is therefore an attack on the very fabric of the conscience of our society and the fulcrum of our unity, democracy, and good governance which every Nigerian must stand up against”
The Deputy President of Senate who added that the attack was “dastardly, anti-cultural, and anti-Nigeria”, urged the media not to be cowed, but speak up against all acts of terrorism as Nigerians were in solidarity with them.