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Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State on Friday said that the state has not recorded an attack by terrorists since the invasion of Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo in June 2022.
Aiyedatiwa stated this during a live media chat while fielding questions about the level of security in the state, among other issues.
“Terrorist operation has not happened after the Owo massacre. We’ve not experienced any terrorist attack. I said that we have isolated cases of kidnapping for ransom; it’s happening, but we have to engage.
“The security agencies have to engage to be able to ensure that those who are kidnapped are released, the victims are released, and then they put a trail on those who are perpetrating that act,” he said.
When asked about the reported killings by suspected bandits in some parts of the state recently, including in the Agamo community, the governor said, “Those cases you mentioned, as I said, are isolated cases. These are not bandit attacks as it were, because when a bandit comes in, they destroy, they kill for no cause.
“They don’t take ransom. They don’t do anything. They just come in and just displace people.
“Like what happened at Saint Francis Catholic Church in Owo. They didn’t take, not even the handset or phone of anyone. They just came in and blasted the whole place with a grenade and all that and left.”
Aiyedatiwa described the Amotekun corps as a version of state police.
According to him, the local security outfit has been effective in complementing the efforts of major security agencies in the state.
Over 40 persons were killed and many injured during the attack.
The attack, which claimed the lives of dozens of people and left 107 injured, drew worldwide condemnation.
The Department of State Services said five men are being tried over the June 2022 attack.
In February, 2026, an officer of the Ondo State Security Network Agency, Amotekun, told a Federal High Court Abuja, that he engaged in a gun battle with one of the attackers behind the massacre and later identified the man in court as the second defendant.
The witness, code-named SSG, an Assistant Commander with Amotekun and a resident of Owo, said he and his team encountered the fleeing attackers in the bush shortly after the church shooting, following intelligence from eyewitnesses.
According to SSG, he was initially responding to a separate kidnapping incident at Shagari Village in Owo when he received a call from his commander to abort the mission because an attack had just occurred at St. Francis Catholic Church.
Continuing his testimony, he said he saw spent AK-47 shells scattered on the ground, and inside the building, he met lifeless bodies of men, women and children, as well as several injured worshippers, when he got to the church.
He said the injured were taken to the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, while the corpses were deposited at St. Louis Hospital.
