Ondo Diocese in Nigeria Seeking Funds “as relief for victims” of Pentecost Sunday Massacre

In the statement, Zenith Bank PLC is provided for financial remittance, with 1223923743 as the Naira account, and 5072601447 as the Dollar account.

The Pentecost Sunday attack involved gunmen who fired at the Catholic worshippers and detonated explosives, several media in Nigeria have reported, some indicating that many children were among the dead.

In a June 5 report,  the Director of Social Communications in Ondo Diocese confirmed the reported attack on the Nigerian Catholic Parish and communicated  the call for calmness by the Local Ordinary, Bishop Jude Ayodeji Arogundade.

The attack on Catholic worshippers in Ondo Diocese has received national and international condemnation.

Catholic Bishops in Nigeria condemned “in the strongest terms the spilling of innocent blood in the House of God” and called on the government to hunt down the “criminals responsible for such a sacrilegious and barbaric act” and “bring them to book”. 

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“If the government fails to act decisively on such a grave matter, it would be encouraging the descent of anarchy on our nation,” the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) said in the June 5 statement.

Church leaders under the auspices of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said the attack was “sad, wrong, condemnable, outrageous, unacceptable and satanic” and termed it “raw persecution”. 

The Catholic Pontifical foundation, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International, expressed deep shock, and said that the incident was part of the “crimes against Christians” in the West African nation.

Officials of the Catholic Laity Council (CLC) of Nigeria said, “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.”

“We are indeed tired of words; we want action and the urgent arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators of this evil act,” CLC officials said in their June 6 statement shared with ACI Africa.

They added, “Our leaders must rise against just condemning this act by using the over used words like bringing the perpetrators to book.”

Silas Mwale Isenjia is a Kenyan journalist with a great zeal and interest for Catholic Church related communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communication from Moi University in Kenya. Silas has vast experience in the Media production industry. He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.