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By Emmanuel Adeleke
The National Security Council has disclosed that the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) was behind the attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State. that led to the death of about 38 persons on Sunday June 5.
Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, stated this on Thursday while briefing State House correspondents after the National Security Council meeting in Abuja.
He said that security agencies, particularly the police, have been directed to arrest the perpetrators.
The minister noted that the attack has no ethno-religious connection, stressing that the group’s activity has nothing to do with religion.
The council, according to him, is also concerned about killings in the name of blasphemy and has directed security agencies to go after perpetrators of the incidents that occurred in Sokoto State and Abuja recently.
Also, the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, noted that the imprints of the perpetrators of the attack have been identified.
He stated that although no arrests have been made, security agencies are now zeroing in on them.
The meeting, which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, was held less than a week after the attack that claimed about 40 lives and left several others wounded.
In a recent update on the attack, Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, said 40 persons died in the incident while 26 survivors have been discharged from hospitals in the area.
“The figure I have now shows that 127 persons were involved and that the number of death now is 40. On admission receiving treatment, we have 61. 26 have been discharged.
“Those are the figures we have now from the Commissioner for Health. So, the government is not hiding anything,” the governor had said.