Nigeria: How Owo Church Killings Put 2023 Northern Presidency Up in the Air

Sunday’s attack on St Francis Catholic Church, Owa-luwa Street, Owo Kingdom, Ondo State, by criminal terrorists, leaving scores dead in its wake, mostly women and children, might have had devastating consequences on the quest for northern presidency in 2023.

Although a debate on the justification for a northern president after President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years, has always ended in stalemate, Sunday’s terrorist attack on innocent worshippers, has however, made the idea more untenable in view of the current realities.

Already, the governors from both north and south, had reviewed the security situation in the country, and were said to have come to a realisation that the joke was on them if they sat back and allowed hoodlums take over the country.

However, with the security situation this bad under a northern president, more so a retired general, the governors unanimously agreed to do something different in order to get a different result, hence the need to ensure a unifier from the south.

“Owo killings had not crept into the picture when the governors met and concluded they could no longer sit back and allow hoodlums take over the country. So, they agreed to go to the south and try a new perspective, given thew increasing insecurity in every part of the country.

“But with the mindless killings of women and innocent children, who had gone to worship in Church by terrorists, northern presidency becomes arguably untenable and might have died a natural death, because those who ordinarily should push it are no longer interested,” said a source privy to one of the governors’ meetings.

The source, who claimed that the northern governors were the ones personally campaigning for a southern president, explained that the only remaining northern candidate in the race for APC ticket, Senate President Ahmad Lawan, constituted no threat to the cause and resolution of the governors.

According to him, “The only northern candidate still in the race, Ahmad Lawan, has no experience. He has never run anything in his life. He has never run a state; he has never run any business, therefore, he poses no threat to southern presidency with its array of supporters from the north.

“So, essentially what the governors are trying to do is to see if they could do the consensus that could unite the country and move on from the present phase. The killings are not tenable and do not represent who we are as a people.”

When THISDAY visited the scene of the incident, it was observed that the gunmen used dynamites to blow the altar of the church while the service was going on.
Parts of the altar POP caved in, as the gunmen shot many worshipers.

Bloodstains were seen on the floor of the church as corpses were moved to the Federal Medical Centre and St Louis Catholic Hospital, Owo, as well as those who sustained injuries.
Meanwhile, the different presidential aspirants in the party, have already begun to mobilise cash and alliances for last minute push.

A party source confided in THISDAY that the APC aspirants, have only decided to downplay the magnitude of what is going on now, because of the backlash from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) open trading with delegates.

“There’s last minute mobilisation of cash that’s already going on and it is across all the aspirants. None is left out. Besides, there’s also alliances being negotiated ahead of the D-Day. And all of this is being done to ensure a southerner does not just emerge candidate of the ruling party but goes ahead to win the general election. This is why the last minute push is intense,” the source said.

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