Ondo, 07 June, 2022 / 9:00 pm (ACI Africa).
Those behind the Pentecost Sunday massacre of dozens and injuries of many more at St. Francis Xavier Owo Catholic Parish of Ondo Diocese in Nigeria need to be urgently pursued, apprehended, and “dealt with according to the laws of the land”, officials of the Catholic Laity Council (CLC) of Nigeria have said.
In a statement shared with ACI Africa Monday, June 6, officials of CLC condemn the June 5 “barbaric act” that involved gunmen who reportedly fired at Catholic worshippers and detonated explosives in the Nigerian Catholic church. Several media in Nigeria have reported the incident, some indicating that many children were among the dead.
In the letter signed by CLC National President, officials of the Catholic lay entity say they are “heartbroken” and find it “very difficult to address my people at this moment knowing fully well that we are yet to recover from the recent murder of our daughter and friend, the late Deborah Samuel by some heartless religious extremists in Sokoto State.”
“As a Christian group and direct mourners of this sad incident, we do not want to only condemn this barbaric act carried out by these animals in human form but use this medium to let the government know that we have taken enough of this killing of our people and we now find it very difficult to chew what they’ve forcefully put in our mouth. The only option left is to throw it out,” CLC officials say in their statement signed by Sir Henry Yunkwap.
“We are indeed tired of words; we want action and the urgent arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators of this evil act,” they say, and continue, “Our leaders must rise against just condemning this act by using the over used words like bringing the perpetrators to book.”
