Headlines
Owo massacre a test for Amotekun: Would it signify wide terrorism project in Southwest?
Adebayo Obajemu & Olusesan Laoye
The attack on the St.Francis Catholic Church Owo late last week is widely viewed as terrorists testing the waters to see how prepared and receptive the Southwest homegrown security network codenamed Amotekun was to curtail such an act.
Although, there are official hints that the no-nosense governor of the state Arakunrin Akeredolu and the entire Government security infrastructure are now on the trail of those who carried out the attack on the catholic Church in Owo the home town of Governor Rotimi Akeredu of Ondo State, there are apprehensions that the attackers may have dissolved into thin air having successfully test- run their capability to berth terrorism in the Southwest without resistance.
Eyewitnesses who are said to have escaped the mass murders of innocent worshippers allegedly admitted that the attackers they saw before they escaped for their life were Fulani bandits.
The church was attacked on Sunday morning of May 5 2022
During the attack no fewer than 85 worshipers were massacred or injured in broad day light.
Inside sources in Ondo told Business Hallmark that it officials have confirmed what the eyewitnesses said that attackers were indeed Fulani bandits.
How did such a large number of bandits in flash car manage to escape the scrutiny of Amotekun operatives and the police? This question has agitated the minds of security analysts and observers.
In his chat with Business Hallmark, a professor of criminology at Northwestern University in the United States, Akin Obaniku ,” what happened in Owo is sad in itself but beyond the emotions of the killings, the mass murders have the imprimatur of Fulani bandits. And if so, how did such large number of outlaws manage to evade detection by the local security outfit of the Southwest and the police.
In traditional Yoruba setting, we normally have experienced hunters who are nuanced in local protection mechanism, yet none were able to see this!
He said the Southwest leadership this time must forget partisan politics and come together, convene a meeting of political elites, business elites, traditional institutions, including hunters association and even medicine men to fashion out urgent mechanism of introducing effective deterrent as the only way to prevent a repeat now that the terrorists have succeeded in testing the waters.
John Atteh, a retired police assistant commissioner told Business Hallmark that ” the killings are a warning signature to the Southwest, and we expect the Southwest to respond in a multi – pronged manner, including drawing on resources of local protection and calling on the local gods through ritual to decimate the attackers spiritually as being done in the past. I call on Southwest governors to further empower Amotekun with resources as per funding and supply of security needs.”
Many have speculated that the attack was carried out partly as a warning to those in the South West based on the fact that Governor Akerodolu has been the strident voice against Fulani incursions in the Region and as well as being the Chairman of the South West Governors Forum ,and that of the entire South.
Only recently, Prelate of the Methodist Church, Samuel Uche who paid 100 million before his kidnappers could release him around Owerri, Imo State said those who abducted him were Fulani bandits, and that they were planning large scale invasion of the Southeast and Southwest regions.
As that the time of filling, this report investigations were still going on to identify how the attack was carried out, the motive behind it and those who actually sent them.
Ondo State government officials are already in Owo and have been mopping up and carrying out discreet investigations.
Meanwhile, the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Akeredolu on special duties, Dr Doyin Adebowale in a brief chat with the Business hallmarks hinted that both government officials and all the security and law enforcement agents are already on the trail of the bandits.
He assured that the State government would get to the bottom of the attack and called for calm anong the citizens of the State
Among the dead were small children and pregnant women. It was even said that several families who went to church together have been wipped off in the attack.
Professor Adeagbo Moritiwon, a political scientist in his assessment of the tragedy blamed the Southwest governors for paying lip service to security concerns, wondering why they ( the governors) failed to adequately fund Amotekun.
” Honestly, i find it difficult to understand why Southwest governors have not been adequately funding their own security outfit- Amotekun. I know that Akeredolu is enthusiastic but others like Fayemi are just plain disappointing because of politics. Now the chicken have come home to roost. These governors need to hold urgent security meeting to come up with better funding and even involvement of local hunters, making monthly stipends ready for these hunters.”
