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Nigeria: 7 killed in newspaper office bombings Boko Haram claims responsibility
Another bomb exploded late Thursday afternoon on the outskirts of Kaduna, causing unknown injuries, police said.
In a statement published Thursday night by the Premium Times website, a spokesman for Boko Haram said it would attack media again over what the group felt was inaccurate media coverage. The sect is blamed for killing more than 440 people this year alone in its growing sectarian fight against Nigeria’s central government, according to an Associated Press count.
“This is a war between us and the government of Nigeria,” the website quoted a sect spokesman as saying. “Unfortunately the media have not been objective and fair in their report of the ongoing war. They chose to take side.”
A journalist with long-standing ties to the sect later told the AP that the statement came from the group. The journalist spoke on condition of anonymity over concerns about his safety.
The sect spokesman particularly blamed ThisDay for publishing stories the group found inaccurate. The newspaper is owned by media mogul Nduka Obaigbena, whose flashy events in Nigeria have drawn celebrities from former U.S. President Bill Clinton to rapper Jay-Z. Obaigbena also has strong ties to the country’s elite and the ruling People’s Democratic Party.
The newspaper has sparked ethnic and religious violence in the past. In 2002, rioting over an article published by ThisDay suggesting the Prophet Muhammad would have married a Miss World pageant contestant killed dozens in Kaduna.
Gbayode Somuyiwa, an official with ThisDay, said the newspaper and others received a general threat purportedly from the group in January. A statement issued by the newspaper promised it would “not be deterred in our pursuit of truth and reason.”
