Church still full two years after massacre

A terror attack on a church in south-west Nigeria has not dampened the religion of its congregation as worshippers proceed to fill the pews two years on.

Forty-one worshippers were killed and over 70 injured within the attack on St Francis Xavier’s Catholic Church, Owo, during a Pentecost Sunday mass on 5 June 2022. 

The anniversary is being marked today with a special mass and a chat on martyrdom. Despite the trauma of the attack, attendance on the church has not been affected. 

Margaret Attah, a nurse who became wheelchair-bound after losing each legs and an eye fixed within the attack, told Aid to the Church in Need that there was a whole lot of fear in the neighborhood due to the continuing threat of attacks and kidnappings, and that many Christians are “afraid to go away their homes”. 

“There is not any peace of mind. We cannot sleep with our two eyes closed. We cannot even travel short distances without fear,” she said. 

Despite this, she continues to thank God and says that “the church is all the time full on Sundays – to God be the glory”.

Fr Michael Abugan, parish priest of St Francis Xavier, praised survivors of the attack for being “very resolute, very committed, very resilient of their practice of religion”.

ACN is financially supporting survivors, including funding for prosthetic legs for Mrs Attah. 

Despite her life-changing injuries, Mrs Attah said she had forgiven her attackers: “I pray to God to forgive me my very own sins, so likewise I actually have to forgive others.”

She said that the one hope for Nigeria was prayer and that she was trusting God with the longer term of the country. 

“We need to proceed to hope to God that his Kingdom should come,” she said. 

“It is simply God’s Kingdom that may reign in Nigeria – that’s the only way we are able to have peace.”