June 17, (THEWILL) – Tears flowed freely on Friday, as the remains of 40 dead victims of the attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State, were given a mass burial.
The Catholic diocese of Ondo and the State Government had organised mass burial for the dead victims.
The funeral mass was witnessed by government functionaries including the State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, his wife, Betty, the Olowo of Owo, Oba Ajibade Ogunoye and former Governor of the state, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, among other top officials of the state government.
Catholic clerics including Archbishop of Ibadan archdiocese, Most Rev Leke Abegunrin, Bishop of the diocese of Sokoto, Mathew Hassan Kukah, Bishop of Oyo diocese, Leke Badejo and those of Osogbo, Ado-Ekiti, Abeokuta, ijebu-Ode and other dioceses of the church, as well as representatives of other Christian churches and Islamic faith, graced the occasion.
In his homily, the Catholic Bishop of Oyo diocese, Bishop Leke Badejo, said though the victims were dead, they remain safe in the hands of Jesus, their saviour.
The cleric expressed worry on the spate of attack against Christians in the country, saying that “by being christians, are we now walking corpses? No, we are not walking corpses that our leaders want us to think we are. Our leaders must, therefore, be leaders indeed and not mere dealers.
“Is Bokoharam more powerful than our government? Are bandits and terrorists more powerful than our Federal Government? I don’t think so, but recent events have shown that our government cannot secure us again”, he queried, adding that about 900 Nigerians were killed in violent attacks in different parts of the country in 2022 alone.”
Badejo, who said the killing was not an isolated one and there is no indication that it would be the last, stressed that those in position of authority have not shown anything indicating that the attack on the church of God will abate.
The Bishop, however, urged christians not to succumb to the threat and challenges against the church by “the tragedy of the present time.”
On his part, Governor Akeredolu said he was at the occasion to accept the failure of government on security.
“We have failed, we have failed. We have really failed you”, he admitted.
Akeredolu added: “Not that we are not trying as a government, but the forces of the other side has overpowered us. The forces of the other side have proved that we have not done anything. However, we shall not allow the situation to continue.
“It is not here that I will begin to speak about the failures of the government. It is not here that I will speak about the short comings of the government. This is quite unfortunate, but we will countinue to rely on God. The security architecture of this country needs rejigging, but we are not here for that. We will say that somewhere else.”
The Governor confirmed that 40 persons were killed during the attack on the church on June 5, while over 70 were badly injured.
He said out of the 40 dead victims, 18 had been buried by their various families, while “the remaining 22 people were being buried” by the church.
The Catholic Bishop of Ondo diocese, Bishop Jude Arogundade, said Governor Akeredolu has not failed, but has shown courage and bravery.
He, however, added that the promise by the government to find the killers was an empty one, which would not yield any positive result.
Bishop Arogundade expressed concern on the inability of the government to introduce state police which operates in other advanced climes, just as he maintained that “we shall continue to hold our leaders responsible.”
He called on those who perpetrated the dastardly act to repent and be saved, saying that “the killers should tell us their grievance. They should tell us why they are angry and what they want.”
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