Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has described the attack on Owo as a message to the South West.
The message is coming on the heels of the cancelation of this year’s June 12 celebrations in the state following the Owo Attack.
Soyinka said this during his condolence visit to Governor Rotimi Ackeredolu of Ondo State on Friday following the attack on the St. Francis Catholic Church on Sunday. “He was targeted and there is no question about that. It was not an accident, and it is passing a message to the rest of us,” Soyinka said according to a statement issued by the governor’s media aide Richard Olatunde. “That is why I’m here. I want the Governor to know that we have received the message. We understand it and we came to sympathize with him that he was selected as a medium for that message. “So, the answer we must give to the message we all received is that we are not slaves. Here, on our own soil, having had the experience of a century of disdain, and contempt about us as black people.”
However, governor Akeredolu said this in a tweet on his official handle on Saturday that the celebrations will not hold in view of the incident.
“In honour of the victims of the terror attack at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, the Ondo State Government has canceled this year’s June 12 celebration,” the governor tweeted.
“The cancelation is to enable the people of Ondo State to mourn their loved ones who lost their lives in the horrific attack, ”he said.