Source: BBC
Owo church massacre: CAN fumes, sends message to Buhari
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has condemned the killing of worshipers at St Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State.
Recall that gunmen had stormed the church on Sunday and killed over 50 worshipers, while several others sustained gunshot injuries.
Reacting, CAN, in a statement issued by Pastor Adebayo Oladeji, media assistant to the CAN President, His Eminence, Rev Dr Samson Ayokunle, described the development as “outrageous”.
“The leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has condemned the unprovoked attacks and killing of several innocent worshippers at the St Francis Catholic Church, Owa-luwa Street, Owo, and called on the security agencies to apprehend the perpetrators of the dastardly criminality.
“This is sad, wrong, condemnable, outrageous, unacceptable, and satanic. There is no explanation for this unprovoked attack and assault on a place of worship. This is raw persecution. These people are possessed, and demonic and are not working for the good of the country. May God descend heavily on them and fight them mindless agents of Satan from their roots in Jesus’ name,” CAN said.
It, therefore, called for a total overhauling of the security architecture and asked President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the recycling of criminals and terrorists in the name of de-radicalising programme.
”If the programme is not counterproductive, how come the criminalities are always on the increase and nowhere is safe again?” it asked.
CAN also condoled with the families of the victims, the Catholic Church and the government, and people of Ondo State over the incident.
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story narrated:
We Were Locked In The Church For Over 20 Minutes - Parish Priest
Rev Father Andrew Abayomi, one of the priests at St Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Owa-luwa Street, Owo, Ondo State, has narrated how the church was attacked.
It was reported that many worshippers were killed when terrorists bombed the church on Sunday morning.
In an interview, the Cleric said suspected terrorists struck as the day’s service was about to end.
“We were about to round off service. I had even asked people to start leaving, that was how we started hearing gunshots from different angles.”
“We hid inside the Church but some people had left when the attack happened. We locked ourselves in the church for 20 minutes. When we heard that they had left, we opened the church and rushed victims to the hospital.”
Source : Joi John, BBC Yoruba.
Daily Trust.
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