The federal government has said that it suspects the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) terrorists as masterminds of last Sunday’s killing of 40 worshippers and maiming of many others at St Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State.
The minister of interior, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, stated this yesterday while briefing journalists at the end of the national security council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja.
He said security agencies had been directed to go after the perpetrators of the act and bring them to justice.
The minister conjectured that the motive behind the immoral act was to pit Nigerians against each other and make it appear as ethno-religious war.
Aregbesola said ISWAP’s imprints had been determined in the attack, adding that arrests were yet to be made.
He contended that there was no ethnic agenda and urged Nigerians to unite and defeat the terrorists.
“The national security council, has just risen from its meeting today, which reviewed, very critically, all aspects of security situation in the country and came up with conclusions, commending the efforts of the military and other security agencies in mitigating the insurgency, particularly, in the northeast, where the fundamentalists there have been weakened, degraded and equally in the northwest, where the bandits are equally weakened, and the north central, where we’re engaged with pockets of bandits.
“The council is quite concerned about the violent attack in Owo, Ondo State, and has been able to locate the perpetrators of that horrendous attack. From all indications, we are zeroing in on ISWAP, the Islamic State for West Africa.
“It is not an ethno-religious thing; the animals in ISWAP wanting attention, recognition, are suspected to have launched that attack. We have directed all the agencies concerned to go after them and bring them to justice,” he said.
More so, the minister said the council expressed concerns about killings in the name of blasphemy and directed the security agencies to go after perpetrators of two incidents that occurred in Sokoto State and Abuja recently.
“We are equally concerned about the spate of attacks in the name of blasphemy.
“The police have been directed to mobilise, identify and preempt all those involved in the blasphemy attacks in two areas of the country, namely Sokoto and Abuja, of recent.
“The assurance is that we are committed to maintaining law and order and providing adequate security for Nigerian citizens,” he added.
