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MRA Faults Claims By Task Force On
Terrorism On The Alleged Death By Bomb Blast Of Bagaudal Kaltho
LAGOS, TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1998:
Media Rights Agenda (MRA) views as outrageous yesterday’s claim by the
Task Force on Terrorism that the Kaduna Correspondent of The News
magazine group, Mr. Bagauda Kaltho, died at a bomb blast scene in 1996
while trying to place an explosive device at the Durbar Hotel in Kaduna.
We fail to understand how it could possibly have taken the Task Force over
two and half years to make this revelation if indeed the allegations are
true. We also find it incredible that despite widespread and persistent
reports over the last 30 months that Mr. Kaltho had been arrested and
detained, the security agency, which now claims that he was dead all the
while, did not deny the fact that they had custody of him.
If the Task Force is claiming that it did not make this
information public all these years because it could not identify the body
as that of Mr. Kaltho, the pertinent question it must now answer is what
additional information it obtained recently with which it has now
confirmed that the body is indeed that of Mr. Kaltho.
We also find the attempt by the Task Force to implicate the
Independent Communications Network Limited (ICNL), publishers of The
News, in the bomb blast without proffering a shred of evidence in
support of the allegation as sheer blackmail aimed at providing security
agencies an excuse once more to continue their onslaught on the
organization.
Media Rights Agenda finds both the claim that Mr. Kaltho
died from an explosion while planting a bomb at the Durbar Hotel and
allegation that the ICNL was involved in the bomb blast callous and
lacking in credibility. We hereby demand a full and independent
investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr. Kaltho’s death. In
the absence of this, we would have no alternative but to conclude that Mr.
Kaltho died in the custody of the Federal Military Government and its
security agencies.
For further information, please contact:
Edetaen Ojo
Executive Director
Tel: 01-4930831
Fax: 01-4930831
E-mail:
mra@rcl.nig.com
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