Murder in Owo Cathedral: Police, Army “counter” monarch, say perpetrators have yet to be arrested

Police in Ondo State have denied rumours doing the rounds that the suspected terrorists, who attacked St Francis Catholic Church, Owaluwa Street in Owo have been apprehended.

The counter narrative by the Police and the Army particularly discounted the royal voice lent to the narrative by the Olowo of Owo, Oba Ajibade Ogunoye, to the effect that the perpetrators of the dastard act had been arrested.

Oba Ogunoye was on Thursday captured in an amateur video that had since gone viral, while addressing restive youths who laid siege to his palace, which is a stone’s throw from the attacked church, on which occasion he announced that the perpetrators had been arrested.

The youths had hysterically responded with shouts of approbation even as the monarch did not give further details about the purported arrest.

THE CONCLAVE reports that the rumour had actually filtered into town on Thursday evening that the perpetrators of the terror attack were nabbed by the combined team of the Nigerian Army, Amotekun Corps and other security agents.

The terrorists had on June 5 attacked the church during Sunday service.

Forty of the 127 persons in the church were killed, leaving 87 survivors out of which 61 are on admission in different hospitals and 26 already discharged.

Meanwhile, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted a source in the Palace of the Olowo to have said that the putported arrest of the terrorists was only a rumour that escaped.

Read the source as quoted by NAN: “It was only a rumour. Youths besieged the palace in their thousands when the rumour broke out, but it was discovered to be a false alarm.

“Kabiyesi was only trying to hail their doggedness as he told them that, ‘I heard the rumour like you too’,  admonishing them to be patient to authenticate it.

“But it was later discovered that the story was about a group arrested on Owo/Benin boundary in possession of dangerous weapon,” the source told newsmen.

While speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria, SP Funmilayo Odunlami, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Ondo State, denied the rumour, saying she could not confirm the arrest of the attackers.

“I cannot confirm anything like that. There is no story like that in the state,” the PPRO told NAN.

Also, a source from Nigeria Army, 32 Artillery Bridgade, Akure said emphatically that the perpetrators of the Owo attack had not be arrested.

He said security agents only arrested people caught with Indian hemp.

“It is a rumour, those arrested are those engaged in Indian hemp business. They are about three or so, they were arrested somewhere around Owo forest,” the source told NAN.