Bombing of Newspaper houses saddens Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said he was saddened by the bombing of the Thisday, Sun and the Moment Newspapers offices on Thursday.
Obasanjo, who said this in an interview with in London on Friday, added the action would not augur well for peace, development and progress of the nation.

He said there was the need for the authorities to look into the remote causes of why media houses were now being attacked by members of the Boko Haram sect.


Obasanjo would not however comment further on the motive behind the bombings saying he needed to be briefed on why they (Boko-Haram) had chosen those media houses as a target before making recommendations or suggestion.

“I need to find out, if there is a particular grievance, what is that grievance, can that grievance be addressed by other means than the ones others have adopted? These are some of the issues I need to know before I can give advice,’’ Obasanjo said.

He recalled his fact-finding trip to Maiduguri which led to some of the recommendations he made to the government on how to deal with the sect.

“I have always maintained that when you have situation like the one we are having now, we have to look thoroughly what the remote and immediate causes are that cannot be solved.’’

Obasanjo said he believed that violence was not the answer to solving any problems.

“We have a problem of security, we have to give it the right dosage of solution. We are the ones to solve it and nobody else,’’ he said.

(NAN)