Ondo comes under another terror attack, police react
By Babajide Adekunle
Terrorists have struck a police station in Ipele-Owo, in Southwestern Nigeria on the New Year’s Eve. There has been no casualty report. The attackers in their numbers bombarded the police station at about 9.31 p.m, just as several Christians in the town were making their way to Crossover service.
Meanwhile, the police have reacted to the incident.
Adebowale Lawal, commissioner of police of the state command, said ‘preliminary reports’ suggested the terrorists were numbered between 20 and 30. Lawal, in his statement, said that a joint security operation involving the Police, Military, Civil Defence, and other non-state actors responded to the attack but that the attackers had disappeared before their arrival at the crime scene.
The police boss said he had drafted police Tactical Teams, Explosive Ordnance Disposal–Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (EOD-CBRN) units, and Police Mobile Force personnel to the community. He added a manhunt for the attackers was underway.
We report that Owo, in 2022, saw a similar and deadlier terrorist attack, when terrorists unleashed hell on the on St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, killing over 40 persons. Several weeks later, the Nigerian Defence Headquarters announced it had arrested some suspects linked to the incident. They are Idris Omeiza, Al Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik, Abdulhaleem Idris and Momoh Otuho Abubakar.
All the suspects later appeared before a federal high court. According to court filings, the terrorists allied with Al Shabaab in 2021. The suspects, reportedly, had taken part in previous attacks on a public school and in another incident near a mosque.
