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“Arrow In The Heart of Free Speech”: Political Parties Lament Attack on ThisDay, Others

Nigeria’s political parties have condemned yesterday’s bombing of the offices of ThisDay and other newspapers in Abuja and Kaduna, with the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) calling it an attack on Nigeria’s “much-cherished” freedom.

Nigeria’s political parties have condemned yesterday’s bombing of the offices of ThisDay and other newspapers in Abuja and Kaduna, with the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) calling it an attack on Nigeria’s “much-cherished” freedom.

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“We frown seriously on any breach of our freedom, for this is the only dividend so far from our democracy,” CNPP said in a statement today.

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) called the attacks “an arrow in the heart of free speech” and an effort to abridge the rights of Nigerians to news and information.  Nothing in the world can justify such attacks against the media, ACN said.  

''Unfettered flow of information is the lifeblood of any society and a necessary ingredient for a successful democracy, and the media in Nigeria have largely carried out their role in this regard with rare courage and uncommon determination,” continued the party.  ''To now seek to scuttle this constitutionally-guaranteed role of the media on the basis of some nebulous justification is totally abhorrent and unacceptable. Any society that stifles the media asphyxiates itself.”

CNPP reminded the master-minds of Boko Haram that they are holding the wrong stick of history, pointing out that history has no record where violence has redressed any grievance, especially in a democracy.
“We are at a loss how wanton killing of both Muslims and Christian in a secular society like Nigeria will achieve the irrational check-list of Boko Haram minders,” the statement said.    

CNPP affirmed that Nigeria will remain a secular and united state, “as nobody has the powers to evacuate neither Muslims of the South to the North, nor Christians of the North to the South, in the same vein the abject poverty in the North is also prevalent in the South.”

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Yesterday’s coordinated attacks on the premises of ThisDay in both cities led to at least five casualties.  Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, ThisDay’s publisher, was in Asaba participating in the South-South Economic Summit.
Late yesterday, Boko Haram spokesman Abul Qaqa told Premium Times that his sect attacked ThisDay because of its “irresponsible” reporting in which it had persistently misrepresented Boko Haram despite warnings.  

He said more attacks were coming the way of the media, but that they had started with ThisDay because it was the biggest offender.  

“The sins of ThisDay are more,” Premium Times quoted Qaqa as saying.

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