Boko Haram threatens Daily Trust, 10 other newspapers … posts Thisday bombing video

[DT]

A new video posted on YouTube purportedly by Boko Haram yesterday showed a smiling suicide bomber drive into the offices of Thisday and blow himself up, an attack that killed at least three people and made journalists a new target of the sect.

The 18-minute video posted on YouTube under the name 'Alh Mani' includes new threats against journalists and major Nigerian newspapers, as well as the Hausa language services of Voice of America and Radio France International. An unnamed male speaker listed 11 newspapers in three categories which he said were all potential attack targets for the sect.

He listed Daily Trust in 'group 3' of newspapers that could be targeted unless they stop publishing "falsehood" about the sect. In the same group were Leadership and Peoples Daily newspapers as well as the Hausa Service of Radio France International.

The man speaking in the video listed Thisday alone in 'group 1" of a newspaper already hit and that would continue to be a target.

'Group 2', comprising media outfits that are immediate targets of attacks, has Punch, Sun, Vanguard, Guardian, Nation, Tribune and National Accord newspapers, as well as the VOA Hausa Service.

"All these news agencies, God willing, we find their office, we're going to attack," the narrator says. "Anything that has to do with them, even their office, their workers."

The video shows the suicide bomber drive a sport utility vehicle on April 26 into the Abuja offices of Thisday, sending a massive fireball into the air.

In the video, a narrator blames Thisday for publishing inaccurate and biased information about the sect known as Boko Haram. In particular, the man mentions a 2002 article published by Thisday ahead of the Miss World pageant contestant.

The new video shows a new sophistication of the sect. Past videos have simply shown the sect's leader Abubakar Shekau talking. Tuesday's video included images from an attack for the first time, as well as using another speaker besides Shekau to spread the sect's message.


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Daily Trust

[DT]