Ondo prepares memorial park for Owo victims, confirms 40 deaths

The Ondo State Government has said the death toll from the Sunday terrorists attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, has increased to 40.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Banji Ajaka, in a statement on Wednesday said as of Tuesday midnight, the government’s record showed that those affected by the attack were 127 while 40 were confirmed dead.

Ajaka, in the statement said, “The situation report as of 12midnight on Tuesday, June 7, 2022 is that at St. Louis Hospital, Owo, 39 people were involved and 13 deaths.

“At the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, the total number of persons involved is 84 and number of corpses in FMC mortuary is 25; 17 females and eight males.”

He also said two deaths were recorded from two private hospitals in the state.

Meanwhile, the state governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, said the state government would provide land in a good environment for the mass burial of the victims.

Akeredolu said this while receiving a team of Catholic bishops from the South-West led by Archbishop Leke Abegunrin, at his residence in Owo.

The governor, who also confirmed the new casualty figure, said the new figure followed the harmonisation of reports from various hospitals.

He said, “We will have a Memorial Park here where those who died in the attack will be buried.

“We will find a good place as a Memorial Park. It will also be my suggestion that even if there are people who have retrieved their family or members of their family, we must still have a symbolic grave there for them. And it will be there forever, it is not something we can forget and we should never forget it.”