The St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, South West Nigeria reopened for services on Easter Sunday, ten months after a deadly attack.
The attack on the catholic church left over 40 worshippers dead and several others injured.
Ten months after the incident, the church was reopened for worshippers to celebrate the 2023 Easter.
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At the reopening, the Catholic Bishop of Ondo Diocese, the Most Revered Jude Arogundade, called on the Nigerian Government to protect the lives and properties of the citizens.
“The government must wake up and show strength and courage and make sure those who carried out the evil that took place in this church and those carrying out the evils that are going on in this country are brought to book and are punished accordingly,” the cleric said.
For most of the congregants, especially those who witnessed the attack, returning to the same church came with mixed feelings. They recalled how the attack happened and called on the government to tackle insecurity in the country.
This is just as they thanked God for sparing their lives and prayed that God reposes the souls of those who died in the attack.
Weeks after the attack, the Nigerian military arrested some suspects believed to have masterminded the attack.
Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola, who spoke after a National Security Council meeting in June 2020, said the attack has no ethnic-religious connection, affirming that the group’s activity has nothing to do with religion.
The victims of the attack were later given a mass burial on June 17 with the Ondo State government releasing the list of those affected by the incident.
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