Owo Church massacre suspects arrested in Ondo – Report; They’re ISWAP – Aregbesola; We’re like people at war – Justice Olateru-Olagbegi
Against the background of reports that the suspected attackers of St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, are members of the dreaded Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and that they have been arrested, Emeritus Judge, Justice Adesuyi Olateru-Olagbegi, has raised the alarm that “we are like people at war, without a formal declaration of war.”
Hon. Justice Olateru-Olagbegi, a Prince of the Owo Kingdom, who lamented what he described as the heart-rending assault on the worshippers at the Church, said that if truly ISWAP had found its way to Owo, it meant that urgent steps must be taken by governments at the federal and state levels to ensure that such incidents never happen again, in Owo, in any part of the South West zone or the country as a whole.
The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, at the end of the National Security Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, had blamed the ISWAP for the attack on the Church that led to the death of about 40 persons on June 5.
Aregbesola, while briefing State House Correspondents after the meeting in Abuja, said that security agencies, particularly the police, had been directed to apprehend the perpetrators, stressing that the attack has no ethnic or religious connection.
Meanwhile, a trending video shows a crowd protesting within the palace of the Olowo of Owo, Oba Ajibade Ogunoye.
One of the people in the video could be heard saying: “They want to take them (suspects) to Akure. The youths are angry.”
Gunmen, last Sunday, had invaded the church and murdered several worshippers, including women and children.
The death toll, according to Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, has hit 40, with others injured, are still at the hospital receiving treatment.
“The figure I have now shows that 127 persons were involved and that the number of deaths now is 40. On admission receiving treatment, we have 61. Twenty-six have been discharged,” he had said on Wednesday when he hosted Catholic Bishops from the South-West led by Most Reverend Leke Abegunrin.
“Those are the figures we have now from the Commissioner for Health. So, the government is not hiding anything,” he had said.
The Police had confirmed that some of the assailants disguised as congregants and fired shots from AK-47 rifles.
The security agency also announced that three unexploded Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) at the scene were recovered.
Justice Olateru-Olagbegi, speaking to GPNEWS from Ibadan, had said that the invasion of the Church is a very dangerous development and that everyone should be worried, insisting the governments, federal and states, must do much more to ensure that such dastardly acts never happen again.
