Publisher, journalists condemn attack on ThisDay offices

Port Harcourt – Some journalists in Rivers have condemned Thursday’s bombings of ThisDay Newspapers buildings in Abuja and Kaduna.
Also Governor  Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State  has condemned the bomb attacks on the offices of some national newspapers on Thursday, stating that they were aimed at  suppressing  the rising anger against the bombers.
The journalists, who spoke in Port Harcourt, described the attacks on the media outfit as “senseless and barbaric.”
It is the first terror attack on a media outfit since the insurgency of terrorists in the country.
The Correspondent of the Tribune Newspaper, Mr Bolaji Ogundele, said it was worrisome that terrorists would attack the media which was the voice of the ordinary man.
“It makes me wonder, which way we are going if the media cannot function, it means total darkness for the nation. ’’
Mr Eddie Williams, the Publisher of a Port-Harcourt-based tabloid “The Envoy’’, said it was inexcusable for anybody to be attacked by terrorists, let alone a media outfit.
He called on the Federal Government to step up action to crush terrorism in the country.
Mr Reward Akwu, a former Rivers Council Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, said that objective information dissemination would be hampered if terrorists target media outfits.
He called on the Federal Government to embark on proactive measures curbing the spate of bombings.
The governor, in a release by his Special Adviser on Media, Dr Festus Adedayo, said that it was extreme cowardice for the bombers to resort  to killing people and destroying properties.
Valiant people, he said, confront issues rather than making issues out of matters that could  be settled through dialogue.
Ajimobi said that the bombers, whose periodic attacks were against innocent people and churches, decided to carry the attacks  to newspaper houses, showed that they were incensed at the  reportage of  their nefarious activities.
He commiserated with the management of  Thisday and other newspapers whose premises were attacked,  stating that  it was a prize they had to pay for dissemination of the  truth.
While urging security agencies  to expedite action about curtailing the activities of  the Boko Haram and “their allied partners on this journey of destruction.”
Ajimobi expressed optimism that  the country would soon be rid of its “enemies within