Abuja – Nigerian security forces have arrested suspected attackers of a church in the southwestern city of Owo that left at least 40 worshippers dead and many others injured, the defence chief said on Tuesday.
The violence at Saint Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State on June 5 drew international condemnation and was a rare attack in the country’s usually safer southwest region.
Government officials say they suspect Islamic State West Africa Province was behind the attack, though the group usually operates far away in the country’s northeast where a jihadist insurgency has been grinding on for more than a decade.
“We have arrested those behind the dastardly act in Owo,” the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, told reporters in the capital Abuja on Tuesday.
He said the suspects were arrested through a joint operation by the military, police and other security forces.
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Irabor said the suspects would be prosecuted at the end of an investigation.
Ondo state Governor Rotimi Akeredolu also confirmed the arrests.
“Five of the attackers have been arrested, including the owner of the house in Owo where the attackers stayed before the June 5 attack,” Akeredolu said on Twitter.
He added that security operatives “are still on the trail of some of them”.
Police had said the gunmen hid among worshippers inside the church during a Sunday service and others also opened fire on the congregation from outside.
At least one blast detonated inside the church and three unexploded improvised explosive devices were also found.
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A priest conducting the service told AFP some worshippers hid in the vestry with others, including children, for about 20 minutes before emerging to carnage.
The attack drew widespread international criticism, including from Pope Francis.
Nigeria’s military and police are battling on several fronts, with jihadist groups in the northeast, criminal gangs in the northwest and centre and separatist violence in the southeast.
President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired army general who will step down in 2023, is under pressure to end the growing insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation of around 210 million people.
Nigeria goes to the polls in February to elect Buhari’s successor at the expiration of his two terms, and the country’s security challenge will be a key issue in the election.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Unsplash
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