By Adedapo Adesanya
The National Security Council has blamed the Islamic State for West African Province (ISWAP) for the attack on St Francis Catholic Church, Owo, on Sunday, June 5, which claimed several lives.
The Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, said this on Thursday while briefing State House Correspondents after the National Security Council meeting in Abuja.
He disclosed that security agencies, particularly the police, have been directed to apprehend the perpetrators.
The former Osun State governor said the attack has no ethnic-religious connection, affirming that the group’s activity has nothing to do with religion.
The council, according to him, is also concerned about killings in the name of blasphemy and has directed the security agencies to go after perpetrators of the incidents that occurred in Sokoto State and Abuja recently.
Similarly, the Inspector General of Police, Mr Usman Alkali Baba, noted the imprints of the perpetrators of the Owo church attack have been identified and although no arrests have been made, security agencies are now zeroing in on them.
Last week, about 50 parishioners of St Francis Catholic Church, Owo, in Ondo State were reportedly killed by gunmen suspected to be terrorists.
Governor of the state, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, said 40 persons died in the incident while 26 survivors have been discharged from hospitals in the area.
“The figure I have now shows that 127 persons were involved and that the number of death now is 40. On admission receiving treatment, we have 61. Twenty-six have been discharged,” he 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 added.
Meanwhile, many countries had sent their condolences.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MoFAIC) affirmed the United Arab Emirates’ strong denunciation of these criminal acts and its permanent rejection of all forms of violence and terrorism aimed at destabilising security in contravention of humanitarian values and principles.
The Ministry also expressed its sincere condolences and sympathy to the Nigerian government and people, and to the families of the victims of this heinous crime, and its wishes for a speedy recovery for all the injured.
The Iranian government also condemned the attack and sympathized with the government and people of Nigeria as well as the families who lost their loved ones in the incident, adding that the act aimed at sowing sedition among followers of divine faiths, which they considered “absolutely unacceptable.”
Modupe Gbadeyanka