Radical Islamist sect Boko Haram suspected of detonating two bombs at ThisDay newspaper offices in Abuja and Kaduna
A suicide bomber detonated a car loaded with explosives on Thursday at the office of a major newspaper in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, while in Kaduna a man threw a bomb near another newspaper office, killing at least six people in the attacks, witnesses said.
The attack in Abuja struck the offices of ThisDay, an influential daily newspaper. The bombing in Kaduna targeted a building housing offices for ThisDay, The Moment and the Daily Sun newspapers.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, though the attacks mirrored others carried out by the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram, which has been responsible for hundreds of deaths in Nigeria this year.
In Abuja, the suicide bomber drove the car through the gates of ThisDay's office and into the reception area before the explosion, said Nwakpa O Nwakpa, a spokesman for the Nigerian Red Cross. The blast killed at least three people and wounded others, he said.
Another Nigerian newspaper, PM News, said following recent threats by Boko Haram to attack media outlets over "negative" coverage of the sect, ThisDay's management had barred staff and visitors from accessing the offices via the front and had resorted to using the back entrance.
Soldiers and police officers quickly surrounded the building, which had part of its roof torn away and all its windows blown out by the force of the explosion.
Gbayode Somuyiwa, the newspaper's corporate director, said he had heard that the explosion damaged the company's printing presses, but had no other information.
The attack in Kaduna also included a car loaded with explosives, though people at the newspaper office quickly surrounded the car, witnesses said. The driver then began shouting that there was a bomb inside, a witness, Jemilu Abdullahi, said.
Bystanders allowed the man to open the boot of the car and he pulled out an object and threw it at the crowd, which exploded, killing at least three people, Abdullahi said. It is unclear why bombers targeted ThisDay, a newspaper owned by the politically well-connected media mogul Nduka Obaigbena. In 2002, rioting after the publication of an article published by ThisDay suggesting the prophet Muhammad would have married a Miss World beauty pageant contestant killed dozens in Kaduna.
The attack came as Boko Haram maintained its violent campaign against Nigeria's weak central government. The sect, which seeks to impose sharia law, is blamed for killed more than 440 people this year. Co-ordinated bombings and shootings in the northern city of Kano in January killed 185 people.