The remains of the victims of the attack on the St Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State were on Friday committed to the mother’s earth.
The Catholic diocese of Ondo and the state government had organized mass burial for the victims of the penultimate Sunday attack on the church and the funeral mass was witnessed by government functionaries including the Ondo State Governor, Mr 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.
In attendance were 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 in the South West.
In his homily, the Catholic Bishop of Oyo diocese, Bishop Leke Badejo said though the victims were dead, they remain save in the hands of Jesus, their saviour.
He stressed the need for all Christians to embrace self defense, which he said it’s allowed in the doctrine of the Catholic Church, as according to him the government can no longer provide the needed security for the citizenry.
He called on the Federal Government to wake up from its slumber, just as he asked rhetorically if lives still have value to the Federal Government.
“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 can not secure us again,” he said.
According to him, almost 900 Nigerians were killed in violent attacks in different parts of the country in 2022 alone.
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.”
He said the killing was not an isolated one and there is no indication that it would be the last one, stressing that those in position of authority have shown nothing to show that the attack on the church of God will abate.
However, Bishop Badejo urged christians not to succumb to the threat and challenges against the church by the tragedy of the present time.
Speaking, Governor Akeredolu said he was at the occasion to accept the failure of government on security, saying “we have failed, we have failed. We have really failed you.”
Akeredolu said “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 Good. The security architecture of this country needs rejigging but we are not here for that. We will say that somewhere else,” he stressed.
The Governor affirmed that 40 persons were killed during the attack on the church on June 5, while over 70 persons were badly injured.
He said out of the 40 people, 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 the Ondo State Governor, Mr Akeredolu has not failed but he has shown courage and bravery.
He said the promise given by the government to find the killers was an empty promise, which would not yield any positive result.
He 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 however called on those who perpetrated the dasterdly 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.”