The alleged mastermind of ThisDay newspaper office bombing in Kaduna, Mustapha Umar, has said the attacks on ThisDay and two other media houses occupying the building was planned by him and his friends.
He said the co-ordinated attack was not supported by the Boko Haram sect but was intended to wreck the organisation for publishing insultive materials about Prophet Mohammed.
Umar further said he was not a member of Boko Haram and also added that him and some of his friends trained under Sheikh Ja’afar M’adam in Maiduguri.
Umar, who said he is educated up to secondary school level having attended the Government Day Secondary School, Maiduguri, stated that while the Kaduna bombing was done with his private Honda car, he bought a year earlier, the bombing of the newspaper’s office in Abuja was carried out by his friend – Alhaji – with his (Alhaji’s) Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV).
He confessed to the policemen shortly after he was apprehended after the incident on April 26, 2012.
The recorded interview contained in a Video Compact Disc (VCD) tendered in court on Tuesday by prosecution lawyer, S. M. Labaran, was played in the open court on Wednesday.
Umar was charged with terrorism-related offences over the explosion which partly damaged the SOJ Plaza – occupied by Thisday, Sun and Moment, on Kontagora Road.
“Can you hear me? What happened was that Thisday newspaper insulted Prophet Mohammed. From when a beauty contest was to be conducted and Thisday newspaper insulted Prophet Mohammed, that was why I went and did this so as to take revenge.
“My intention was to eliminate them so that it will not exist again. You know, he who insults a prophet of God is not supposed to exist.
“There is the tradition of the prophet, which says that whoever insults the prophet of Allah shall be killed. For some years back, I have been praying to God to give me this opportunity to perpetrate this action and today, God has given me the chance.
“But the Boko Haram you are talking about, if I belonged to them, I will not come to newspaper house. What do they have? Are they not publishing newspaper? But they (Thisday) insulted the Prophet of God in the newspaper they published and who insults a prophet also insults God.
“I promised myself that as long as I live, whoever insults a prophet of God, I will revenge,” Umar said.
When asked who made the explosives with which he had planned to bomb the house, he said he made it with his friends.
“Myself, Ibrahim and the one, who did the bomb blast (in Abuja) are together. We all agreed that whoever insulted the prophet of God, we will revenge.
