THISDAY Staff Narrowly Escapes Gunmen Attack After Pleading In Hausa Language

Unknown gunmen have again stormed the Utako, Abuja office of the THISDAY newspaper in the early hours of yesterday. The armed men, according to an eyewitness came in through the back fence of the company’s premises just as a suicide bomber did 12 years ago.

The source said the armed men, who stormed into the premises at about 3 am, “subjected everyone on duty, mostly the production staff members, to inhuman treatment— threatening to kill all of them if they attempted to alert policemen.”

He further informed that the hoodlums attempted to cut one of their victims until he appealed to them in the Hausa language.

“They wanted to cut him with matches until he spoke Hausa to them, that was what saved him. If he was not able to speak Hausa, I don’t know what would have been his fate now,” he said.

After a failed operation that lasted for over 40 minutes, the hoodlums were said to have left with a promise to come back again.

This happened ten years after suicide bombers hit THISDAY offices in Abuja and Kaduna.

It will be recalled that on April 26, 2012, some suicide bombers hit THISDAY offices in Abuja and Kano, in which 11 persons died.

As if that was not enough, a similar explosion also occurred in its Kaduna office hours after the previous blast went off in Abuja.

Meanwhile, the THISDAY management has since reported the matter at the Divisional Police Headquarters, in Utako, Abuja.