Owo Catholic Church Attack: Gov Akeredolu Gives Update On Casuatlies

The number of casualties as a result of the gunmen’s attack at the St Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State has risen to forty.

Naija News reports that the State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu confirmed this during a conversation with a team of Catholic Bishops from the South-West who paid a condolence visit to the state.

Akeredolu while addressing his clergymen said he lack the right words to use in describing the incident which claimed the lives of many innocent citizens.

According to him, the experience in Owo last Sunday was indescribable.

“There is no word to describe it. If you say horrific, dastardly, horrendous, all those ones are common words and we use them for many things,” Akeredolu said while speaking with the clerics who were led by Archbishop Leke Abegunrin.

Akeredolu described the event as barbaric labelling the perpetrators as animals in human skin.

“If you are human, you would not do what they have done. Maybe there are areas where they will do such a thing and they are not worried. But here, we are worried because it is not something we are used to. Human life means a lot to us,” he said.

Akeredolu added: “That is why one is moved. We will have a Memorial Park here where those who died in the attack will be buried. My Bishop sir, we will find a good place as a Memorial Park. It will also be my suggestion that even if there are people who have retrieved their family or members of their family, we must still have a symbolic grave there for them. And it will be there forever, it is not something we can forget and we should never forget it.”

Also confirming the situation with survivors of the attack, the Ondo State Commissioner for health, Dr Banji Ajaka, said so far forty people have died from about 127 involved in the attack.

Ajaka explained that as of Tuesday midnight, data from the St. Louis Hospital in Owo revealed that 39 people are been cared for while 13 are confirmed dead.

He explained further that at least 84 victims were brought to the Federal Medical Centre, Owo including males and females. Also, two persons reportedly died at a private hospital.