No fewer than 25 persons were feared dead, yesterday, as suspected bandits opened fire on worshipers at the St Francis Catholic Church, Owa-luwa Street, in Owo Local Government Area, in the Ondo State capital, Akure.
The state police spokesperson, Funmi Odunlami, said the command would speak on the ugly incident later.
A member of the St Francis Catholic Church, Kehinde Ogunkorode, confirmed that gunmen, suspected to be kidnappers, attacked the church, killing no fewer than 25 worshippers.
Ogunkorode said that the bandits, numbering five, stormed the church during service and shot members indiscriminately.
According to him, “lt was like a movie, they invaded the church and shot indiscriminately. Several people were killed, including children and women.
“It was when they wanted to abduct the priest that they threw dynamite into the church”.
Another source confirmed that no fewer than 25 corpses have been moved out of the church with many casualties lying at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, for medical attention.
According to him, “Some gunmen invaded the church during service, opened fire and killed no fewer than 25 members of the church.
“The congregants were caught unawares by the killers. They also used explosives but many were shot”, he said.
Also speaking, one of the priests at St Francis Catholic Church, Owa-luwa Street, Owo, Ondo State, Father Andrew Abayomi, has given an account of how the church was attacked.
Abayomi, who spoke during an interview with BBC Yoruba, said suspected terrorists struck as the church service was wrapping up.
He said, “We were about to round off service. I had even asked people to start leaving, that was how we started hearing gunshots from different angles.
“We hide inside the church but some people had left when the attack happened. We locked ourselves in the church for 20 minutes. When we heard that they had left, we opened the church and rushed victims to the hospital”, Abayomi said.
Reacting to the incident, President Muhammadu Buhari, expressed shock and sadness over the heinous killing of worshippers, yesterday, at the St Francis Catholic Church, Owa-luwa Street, Owo Kingdom, in Ondo State.
Buhari, in his condemnation of the dastardly act, said that eternal sorrow awaits those behind killing both here on earth and in the hereafter.
The president’s expression of grief was contained in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina.
Buhari, in the statement said, “Only fiends from the nether region could have conceived and carried out such dastardly act, adding that eternal sorrow awaits them both on earth here, and ultimately in the hereafter.”
He mourned the dead, condoled with their families, the Catholic Church, and the Government of Ondo State, charging emergency agencies to swing into action, and bring succour to the wounded.
The statement quoted him as saying, “No matter what, this country shall never give in to evil and wicked people, and darkness will never overcome the light. Nigeria will eventually win.”
Also reacting, the Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, vowed to hunt down assailants behind the killing of innocent people of Owo, worshiping at the St Francis Catholic Church, Owa-luwa Street, yesterday.
The governor, who described the incident as a vile and satanic attack, said he was saddened by the calculated assault on the peace-loving people of Owo Kingdom who have enjoyed relative peace over the years.
Akeredolu’s reaction was contained in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Richard Olatunde, saying, “It is a black Sunday in Owo. Our hearts are heavy. Our peace and tranquillity have been attacked by the enemies of the people. 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.
“I commiserate with my people in Owo, particularly families of those who lost their lives to this ugly and unfortunate attack. I extend my condolences to Olowo of Owo, Oba Gbadegesin Ogunoye as well as the Catholic Church.
“I urge our people to remain calm and vigilant. Do not take laws into your hands. I have spoken to the heads of the security agencies. I have equally been assured that security operatives would be deployed to monitor and restore normalcy to Owo kingdom,” Akeredolu said.
In his remarks, Leader of the Yoruba self-determination movement, Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide, Prof. Banji Akintoye, described the attack on Christian worshipers at St. Francis Catholic Church, by terrorists suspected to be Fulani herdsmen, as a declaration of war against the Yoruba people.
Akintoye said, “The effrontery of the Fulani marauders needs to be frankly and courageously confronted so as to prove to their sponsors that the Yoruba people can never be intimidated or subjugated.”
The Ilana group’s leader, in a statement by the Communications Secretary, Mr Maxwell Adeleye, titled, “Owo Catholic church attack is a declaration of war against Yoruba people – Akintoye”, called on Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, to declare an emergency against the activities of Fulani herdsmen in the state with immediate effect.
He said, “We have stated it very expressly that the Yoruba people need to negotiate their exit from Nigeria as a matter of urgency, but our partisan political actors in Yorubaland never took us serious. We warned them that there’s fire on the mountain, but we were mocked because of their personal aggrandisement.
“Today, we have all been encircled, most especially, in Lagos. For herdsmen to have the effrontery of bombarding a church in Yorubaland to kill some people shows that we are now in a realistic danger.
“My urgent advice to Governor Akeredolu is to pick up the gauntlet and declare an emergency against the activities of all Fulani herdsmen in the state with immediate effect. We have now been taken for granted. We need not pretend anymore. We must demand unanimously, an exit from Nigeria.
“We, the Yoruba people, cannot live in the same country with characters whose idea of common citizenship in Nigeria is to brutalise, subjugate and even exterminate us. It is time to leave these characters now. All stakeholders – the elites, traditional rulers, and our women should act now.
“All the South-West states, including the Yoruba leaders in Kogi and Kwara states should equally declare an emergency against the activities of Fulani herdsmen. We must now take our destinies into our hands,” he said.
Aareonakakanfo of Yoruba land, Iba Gani Adams, also condemned the attack on worshippers of Owo Catholic Church, where many were feared killed as several others sustained life-threatening injuries.
Adams, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media,Mr. Kehinde Aderemi, said the incident was ungodly, and it is capable of threatening the foundation and existence of Nigeria.
He described the perpetrators of the gory attack as evil, saying they have sinned against God and should be ready to face the wrath of the Most High God.
Expressing concern on the spate of insecurity across the country, the Yoruba generalissimo said: “Cases of Boko Haram and Bandits and other criminal elements always attacking churches and mosques have simply showed the failures of the government.It has also exposed the crass incompetence of Nigeria’s leaders and the security apparatus.
“Reports at my disposal showed clearly that the attackers actually disguised as worshippers of the church,planted an explosive device within the church premises and carried out their evil attack on innocent worshippers.
“They later kidnapped the Reverend Father, leaving worshippers cold dead in the pool of their blood.
“The criminals, according to reports, did not come with vehicles, they hijacked vehicle on the road to convey their victims.
“Meanwhile, owner of the hijacked vehicle had gone to Owo A. Division to report the incident, even as all the roads in the ancient town had reportedly been deserted as people had stayed off the roads.
“The Federal Government must rise to its responsibility, begin thorough investigation into the attack and also bring the perpetrators of this gory incident to book.Investigation into the Owo Catholic bomb attack should not be swept under the carpet. Those that carried out the attack are not ghost,they must be apprehended immediately.”
While condoling with the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu and the Olowo of Owo, Oba Gbadegesin Ajibade Ogunoye, Adams, however, urgedthe governor not to relent in his efforts to secure the state, saying that Ondo State would not succumb to the will of criminals that are ready to truncate the peace of the state.
“The video clips and pictures of the deadly attack on worshippers could best be imagined.Such attack would definitely not happen in a saner clime where there is effective security.It would not happen in a country where lives of the citizens are precious to the government.
“However, at this sober time, I feel the pain even as I condole with the governor,the royal father, the good people of Owo town, especially, those that have lost their loved- ones to this cruel attack.The attackis a condemnable act,and a sad one for that matter.It is an attempt to destabilise the state and make life unbearable to the people”, he said.
Similarly, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, said that the Owo attack in which church worshippers were murdered at St Francis Catholic Church, was a direct attack on Yoruba race.
It’s National Organising Secretary, Abagun Kole Omololu, said that “The massacre in Owo Chatholic church is a direct attack on Yoruba land.
“It is directed at Governor Rotimi Akeredolu for his unflinching support for security in Yoruba land by championing the Amatekun security outfits, his stringent upholding of the open gracing law and for his ‘big mouth’ about Southern co-operation for equity and justice in Nigeria.
“We will not succumb into terrorist threat or attack, they will not be allowed to bring down our civilisation.
“We will hunt the killers down. Citizen should not take law into their hands by attacking innocent northerners, only the terrorists, who are mostly foreign Fulani, should be fished out and finish off by the security forces.
“This attack is to course confusion and course war into our land. We should not play into their hands.”
Omololu said that “This evil is condemned in the strongest term. We commensurate with the government and people of Ondo State, the Catholic Church, the Olowo of Owo and the people of Owo”.