Violation Of Owo Massacre Crime Scene

PERHAPS for the first time ever, suspected terrorists have attacked a place of worship in the Southern part of Nigeria. Since the August 6, 2018 attack on St. Philips Catholic Church, Ozubulu in Anambra State was later linked to an alleged drug war, the manner in which the gun attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo was carried out bore the imprints of earlier jihadist terror attacks on churches in the North.

Eyewitnesses reported that the attackers first detonated Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, and systematically shot at the fleeing worshippers. The death toll was put at 39 dead and undisclosed number injured.

Today in Nigeria, there are many terrorist outfits. These include Boko Haram, Islamic State in West Africa, ISWA; Ansaru and the various groups of herdsmen terrorists killing, kidnapping, rustling cattle and attacking communities to take over their lands throughout the country. The armed herdsmen are largely condoned by the Federal Government.

The first instinctive conclusion many drew was that the Owo church massacre was carried out by aggrieved Fulani herdsmen to get back at the Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, for his zero tolerance to open grazing by the herdsmen. Akeredolu, who is also the Chairman of the Southern Governors Forum and an enthusiastic facilitator of the South-West Security Network (Amotekun Corps), has also had a running battle with Fulani groups for insisting that armed herdsmen vacate Ondo forests.

With the foregoing in mind, it is dismaying that the emotion-laden family members and the public were allowed to freely roam around the crime scene which should immediately have been cordoned off by the security agencies.

In other climes, the police or investigative agents are quick to seal off such crime scenes to enable the specialists process them thoroughly and scientifically establish the basis for the accurate identification of the culprits.

The aimless crowding on the crime scene was bound to foul the work of investigators and probably allow the real perpetrators to escape justice.

What manner of training do our law enforcement agencies obtain if they cannot even carry out trite, elementary procedures towards effective law enforcement? Or could it be that these crime scene violations are deliberately allowed to happen to befuddle investigations?

We ask these questions because of the rampant allegations of collusion, condonation and facilitation of crime and terrorism often levelled at some rogue elements of the armed forces, police and security agencies.

It is high time we woke up to frontally tackle all the forces of terror and national destabilisation which have embedded themselves within our polity. Because they target innocent and unsuspecting sections of the public, no one is safe from them. Our law enforcement agencies must commit afresh to professional handling of investigations to effectively prevent and solve crimes.

We ask these questions because of the rampant allegations of collusion, condonation and facilitation of crime and terrorism often levelled at some rogue elements of the armed forces, police and security agencies.

It is high time we woke up to frontally tackle all the forces of terror and national destabilisation which have embedded themselves within our polity. Because they target innocent and unsuspecting sections of the public, no one is safe from them. Our law enforcement agencies must commit afresh to professional handling of investigations to effectively prevent and solve crimes.