Why we bombed The Sun, Thisday –Suspect

After initial denials, Mustapha  Umar, has finally confessed planning the coordinated attacks on the building occupied by three media houses -Thisday, The Sun and the Moment newspapers in Kaduna State on April 26, 2012 with his friends.
He, however, told the court that the attack was not sponsored by Boko Haram sect, but intended to wreck the organisation for publishing materials that were insulting Prophet Mohammed.
Umar, 34, a Kanuri from Borno State and a widower with children, said he was not a member of the Boko Haram, saying that he and his friends trained under Sheikh Ja’afar M’adam in Maiduguri.
Umar, who said he was educated up to secondary school level having attended the Government Day Secondary School, Maiduguri, said while the Kaduna bombing was done with his private Honda car he bought a year earlier, the bombing of the newspapers’ office in Abuja was carried out by his friend – Alhaji – with his (Alhaji’s) SUV.
Umar made this confession during an interview conducted by policemen shortly after he was apprehended.
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 yesterday.
Umar, a suspected Boko Haram member, charged with terrorism related offences over the explosion, which partly damaged the building -SOJ Plaza – occupied by Thisday, The Sun and the 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 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.”
On whether he was disappointed that the explosives he took to the house did not explode immediately, he said he was helpless because it was God’s wish.
“It is God that did not allow it to explode. I waited. It did not explode. Then, I came out from the car, trying to leave, I was blocked by the people, who started beating me and even broke my hand,” Umar said.
The trial judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola admitted in evidence a translated transcription of the interview conducted in Hausa. With the admission of the exhibit, the prosecution closed its case.
The defence, led by Nureini Sulaiman has said he was going to make a no case submission. Justice Ademola adjourned to June 24 for adoption of all processes in respect of the defence’s no-case submission.
On Tuesday, the court admitted in evidence the charred remains of a Honda car, marked Kaduna: AL 306 MKA, 12 gas cylinders and a partly burnt black 25 litre jerry can, allegedly used by Mustapha Umar, a suspected Boko Haram member, who was on a terrorist mission when he was arrested.

CULLED FROM www.sunnewsonline.com