Owo Church attack: Afenifere accuses FG of monopolising security

The Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has condemned the attack on a church in Ondo State, accusing the Federal Government of monopolising the nation’s security architecture.

Gunmen had stormed the St Francis Catholic Church in Owo Local Government Area of the state, killing many and injuring others, with many Nigerians including President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, condemning the act.

Shortly after the incident, Afenifere’s Secretary-General, Sola Ebiseni, said the attack is a “deliberate show at testing the self-defence strength of the Yoruba people in resisting the importation of the horrible culture of violence into our land”.

“In all of these, the Federal Government of Nigeria, which against federal precepts, continues to monopolise security and its architecture, have proven most helpless and irresponsible in securing life and property, an irrefutable sign of the failure of the Nigerian State.”

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The association called on the world to “hold the Federal Government of Nigeria responsible for the ensuing consequences of this deliberate assault on the will of the Yoruba people for peace in our land in our unstoppable strives for development matching with the rest of the civilised world”.

Afenifere’s spokesman said the attack is coming a week after the Methodist Church Prelate, Samuel Kanu-Uche, was kidnapped by suspected herdsmen and freed after N100 million was paid as ransom.

PRESS STATEMENT BY THE AFENIFERE

OWO CARNAGE: A WAR ON THE YORUBA NATION.

The horrendous incident at the St. Francis Catholic Church in the ancient Yoruba city of Owo, Ondo State, where scores of worshippers were killed by herdsmen wielding most sophisticated weapons is not just an attack on the Church and the psyche of all decent people all over the world but a deliberate show at testing the self-defence strength of the Yoruba people in resisting the importation of the horrible culture of violence into our land.

St. Francis Catholic Church, the site of this inhuman carnage, is not only at the heart of Owo, but in fact sandwiched between the Oba Market and the Palace of the Olowo of Owo, an ancient Yoruba monarchical heritage, long declared a national monument, and epicentre of human civilisation. It is an attack on our traditional economy typified by an Oja Oba and the enduring political culture rated even by colonialists as of immemorial global significance.

We observe that this attack is coming less than a week after the Methodist Prelate was kidnapped by herdsmen and was only ransomed with the huge sum of One Hundred Million Naira with the respected clergy alluding to the complicity of the nation’s security forces in tandem with the earlier allegation by General Theophilus Danjuma, a former Chief of Staff of the Nigerian Army. In all of these, the Federal Government of Nigeria, which against federal precepts, continues to monopolise security and its architecture, has proven most helpless and irresponsible in securing life and property, an irrefutable sign of the failure of the Nigerian State.

The World be told to hold the Federal Government of Nigeria responsible for the ensuing consequences of this deliberate assault on the will of the Yoruba people for peace in our land in our unstoppable strives for development matching with the rest of the civilised world. We say in clear terms that the noiseless glides of the Amotekun is no sign of fear and that this stamp on the tail of the viper is one too many.

We commiserate with the scores of families who have lost their loved ones, the Church which even in innocence have been bruised, Kabiesi, the Olowo of Owo, whose sacred eyes must not behold the corpse of his subjects and the Governor of Ondo State, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, who, in spite of all constitutional odds, has held his head high on the issue of our people’s security.

Sola Ebiseni,
Secretary General, Afenifere.
5th June, 2022.