Unknown Gunmen Bomb Local Radio Station in Okene

A local radio station, Tao FM on frequency 101.9, in Okene, Kogi State was yesterday evening, bombed by unknown gunmen, killing no fewer than five people, including the security personnel guarding the station.

According to an online news medium, Greenbarge Reporters, the gunmen gained entry into the station through the hilly rear, gunned down the two security men before throwing an explosive into the building housing the station.

The report had it that the station was still on fire up till 10p.m.

There was no information as to the motive of the gunmen and no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, even as the dead and the injured ones have been taken to Okene general hospital.

So far, no official statement has come from the security agencies in the area, but the chairman of the Board of Directors of the station, Dr. Tom Adaba and Commissioner of Information in the state, Hajiya Zainab O. Suleiman, have confirmed the bombing. The president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), has described Boko Haram as a fraudulent organisation which should not be allowed to recruit members in any part of the country.

In a statement issued by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, Buhari said it was time people knew that Boko Haram’s claim to being a religious group was nothing but a fraud.

“The fraud called Boko Haram can be defeated by denying it a recruitment base,” the president-elect told visiting leaders of Nasarawa State who came to congratulate him on his emergence as presidentelect.

“No religion allows for the killing of children in school dormitory, in markets and places of worship. They have nothing to do with religion. They are terrorists and we are going to deal with them as they deal with terrorists anywhere,” he announced.

Buhari said he is greatly pained by the destruction of schools in the North-eastern part of the country, an action he said could deny thousands of youngsters access to education and a better future unless something was done urgently to avert this tragedy.

“The worst thing anybody can do is to deny children access to education. That will be destructive to their lives and we are not going to allow that to happen,” he assured.

He announce that his government would help the states to get more money to improve infrastructure by ensuring that all federally collectible revenues are paid directly into the Federation Account and each tier of government given its due share.

“As at now, the government does not even know how many revenue accounts it has. We will give all the tiers what is due to them but will hold them accountable as we would the federal government.”

Buhari while describing Nasarawa State as his own “political laboratory,” meaning the only Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)-controlled state of the 36 others, adjudged the experiment as having been a success.

“From one state, I now have 22 political laboratories.”

He commended Governor Tanko Al-Makura for surviving his many impeachment plots, saying “without Nasarawa, there would not have been All Progressives Congress (APC).”