Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu has warned that any future attack on the South West, under any form, will not be tolerated.
According to the governor of Ondo, the South West region has always preached peace and love, emphasizing that the region believes in Nigeria and its unity.
Governors Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), and AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq (Akure) were received by Akeredolu on Tuesday at the Government House in Akure (Kwara State).
Akeredolu was perplexed as to why the attackers targeted the South West without warning.
The governor called the Owo incident a “one too many” strike on the South West.
The governor, on the other hand, praised the governors for their unity, which he described as not only symbolic but also significant.
He said: “We are part of this country and we have always come to this country in peace and we have maintained peace. We have been trying every time to maintain Nigeria because we believe in Nigeria.
“Let someone point to an incident in which we left our enclave or we left this peaceful environment and went to cause problems in other places. Let them tell us.
“We have come to this country in peace, and now people want to visit us with war. You want to maim and kill us; it is not easy.
“It is a dreadful assault. I said to people that if we were at war and we were armed and faced ourselves, in one day 40 people would not die from our side. But this is not war, we were not at war.
“This is an assault on us, on our psyche. We cannot continue this way. We believe in this place, we believe in the South-Western region, we believe in Yoruba. Is Yoruba part of Nigeria we believe in? Yes.
“But I thank you for your solidarity. You have come all the time and we have always worked together, all of us.
“If you get to the scene, I’m sure it will bring tears out of your eyes. These criminals, these animals in human skin, what they did was horrendous.
“They did not come to kidnap, they did not come to steal, they took no dime. They went into the church and shot at everything within their sight.”
