Kogi church attack: How we escaped – Survivors

Twenty-four hours after the deadly attack on a Deeper Life Bible Church, in Otite, Okene Local Council, Kogi State, survivors yesterday recounted how they cheated death . The gunmen, suspected to be Boko Haram, attacked the worshippers during the weekly Bible study, killing 16 people. The death toll rose to 20 by Press time. The survivors said that the gunmen first blocked the church’s three entrances before spraying the occupants with bullets. The hoodlums, they noted, arrived at the premises in three unmarked Toyota buses, disarmed the policemen keeping watch outside the gate and blocked the three entrances before opening fire.
Narrating his ordeal to our reporter who visited the injured victims where they were hospitalized in Okene yesterday, one of the survivors who identified himself as Clement Okoro, said that he was lucky to have temporarily gone out of the church to ease himself when he suddenly heard sporadic gunshots. “When the gunshot subsided, a few of us ran to the church only to see the lifeless bodies of believers littering the ground with blood flowing like an abbatoir, I am only lucky that my wife and children were still in the shop when I left for the church, this is a most horrendous situation,” he lamented Another victim, said they were in the church for the weekly Bible study when all of a sudden they heard shooting.

He said all he could recall was that he found himself in the hospital with bullet wounds on the legs and arms. One of the pastors who refused to disclose his name, said he and his wife escaped by divine intervention. He described the episode as “most wicked because when they shot the worshippers , they began to spray bullets underneath the benches in the church so that no one could escape.
He said he immediately took cover within the neighbourhood as the shooting lasted for more than 45 minutes. Meanwhile, Governor Idris Wada and the head of the security agencies have vowed to arrest the suspects.
Wada, who was at the scene of the incident and hospitals where the survivors are currently receiving treatment in Okene yesterday, said that the state government and security agencies will fish out the culprits and bring them to book.
The governor pledged that the state government will pay all their medical bills. Wada also commiserated with the bereaved families and the church. At the Palace of Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, Alhaji Ado Ibrahim, an angry governor stated that first class traditional rulers have not done enough in the area of security in their various domains.
He charged them to live up their responsibility to arrest the situation. He told the monarch that he was not happy over what is happening in his domain, urging him to use his experience to check the ugly security situation.
The governor expressed dissatisfaction over the rate at which crime is being committed in the area which is very alarming, adding that the development could scare investors. The governor, however, commended the security agents in the state for quick intervention.

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