Gov Akeredolu sheds light on perpetrators of Owo massacre

Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu has addressed allegations quoting him as suggesting that the Ebira people were responsible for the tragedy at the Owo Catholic Church.

The attackers were described by the governor as Ebira people while he was welcoming the NUJ leadership from Nigeria. In Kogi State, there is an ethnic tribe called the Ebiras.

While the Governor stated that some Ebiras were involved in the attack during his appearance on Channels Television's Politics Today on Wednesday, he also noted that not all of the attackers were likely Ebiras.

However, he claimed that his mention of Ebira was in connection to more recent events in the State and not the attack in Owo, while simultaneously refusing to rule out the Ebiras' involvement in the attack on June 5.

“I don’t want to be emphatic on that point because what I said is being mixed up now,” he said.

"I addressed concerns about what I'll refer to as the attackers who came to Owo... the terrorists who came to Owo on June 5 and at the same time, I went ahead and addressed the kidnapping occurrences that we've had recently and I mentioned that possibly the Ebira people were engaged in this. And I added that since we've been living together for too long for these things to start happening, we're going to organize a gathering of the Ebira community in Ondo State. That was a different matter. However, it is evident from the information we have that the June 5 event involves the Okene terror gang.

What can we infer from that? Are all of them Ebiras? We must determine that.

Their names will not bring us to [reasonable] conclusion because as you can see, a number of them have two names…and the Department of State Services is still working on this.

“For me I know that there’s a terror gang in Okene and everybody knows that. They strike across the country…they strike in Kogi, Ekiti and Ondo States,” he added.

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