“This vile and satanic attack is a calculated assault on the peace loving people of Owo who enjoyed relative peace over the years. It is a black Sunday in Owo. Our hearts are heavy. Our peace and tranquility have been attacked by the enemies of peace. This is a personal loss, an attack on our dear State. I have spoken to the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Ondo, Most Reverend Jude Arogundade, who is presently on his way to Owo. Similarly, I have had to cut short my party’s national assignment in Abuja and visit Owo immediately. This is an unexpected development. I am shocked to say the least. Nevertheless, we shall commit every available resource to hunt down these assailants and make them pay. We shall never bow to the machinations of heartless elements in our resolves to rid our State of criminals” Those were the words of the Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN).
We completely align with this statement and further challenge the government to ensure that the dastardly attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State, where many innocent lives, including women and children who went to Church on June 5, 2022, were sent to their early graves, where even those who tried to escape were also gunned down, just like that, must be the last in our history. This is not the first, nor the second time the Catholic Church and other Churches in Nigeria have come under attack in the hands of the terrorists and the enemies of the Christian faith. For instance, in December 25, 2011, St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madala, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja came under heavy bombardments with explosive devices that ripped through the Church when the faithful gathered to worship their God. After the dust settled, many lives were lost.
Other Christian Churches and their members, especially in Mubi, Nasarawa State, have had ugly experiences of both human and material destructions in the hands of these marauders, even as the number of such attacks continues to increase by the day. Not too long ago, Holy Family Catholic Church, where the Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah lives was besieged, and part of the Church vandalized after the gruesome murder of Miss Deborah Samuel, formerly of Shehu Shagari College of Education (SSCE), Sokoto, on the allegation of blasphemy. There are ominous signs that the Church is under serious persecution in our time, and in our country, Nigeria. This is because, the desecration of places of worship with blood of innocent people spilled, now happens all the time and nothing is being done by those in authority to protect the people and their religion, that is not a threat to the human existence in any way. Owo, since the mindless attack by the enemies of humanity has become a pilgrimage centre for prominent Nigerian politicians, within and outside the South West. Condemnations too, have continued to trail the senseless and unprovoked killings of the innocents across Nigeria and beyond. Everyone is calling for the perpetrators to be hunted down without delay by government. Beyond calling the South West to rise up to this challenge, it is indeed a wakeup call for all the States to do more on security issues.
The existential threat is real and Nigerians are tired. If the Church and its people can be attacked with Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) with terrorists stationed strategically to gun down those who attempted to escape, this calls for national mourning, to say the least. This ugly development once again has questioned the capacity of the Nigerian police who, unfortunately, arrived at the Church many hours after the attackers had gone, and other security agencies to secure all of us in this era of terror the country has found itself. This latest attack has confirmed the revelations of the Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Mr. Samuel Kanu Uche, who was kidnapped but later released after paying one hundred million naira. He told the world that Nigeria is under siege unless something is done urgently. This is not time for political correctness and campaign of any sort.
Nigerians want the Federal government, at least for once, to act and bring those that are behind the attack on St. Francis Catholic Church to account. We also want to know who they are, where they come from and what is their motive in attacking a harmless Church and the laity. It’s no longer plausible for human beings to live with animals in the bush. Those currently living in the bush, especially in the South West, South South, South East, including the Middle Belt regions, where the blood of the innocent have been shed by these animals, moving in the guise of human beings be flushed out. We call on the regional security outfits across the country to rise up to the occasion. Killing of innocent human beings is an abomination across all cultures and religions. We pray that perpetual light will shine on all those who lost their lives at St Francis Catholic Church through Christ our Lord. Amen. Enough of this bloodletting in Nigeria under whatever guise!
