The Ondo State Government has said that the demolition of the memorial park built in Owo in honour of the victims of the June 5, 2022, massacre at Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church was a necessary step taken to restore the dignity of Owo’s culture.

It made this known in a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Prince Ebenezer Adeniyan while reacting to the position of the Catholic Church on the matter.

The state government said that the essence of the response was to correct the misrepresentations in the statement by the church.

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Ondo state government has reacted to the statement by the Catholic Diocese of Ondo condemning the demolition of the Memorial Park built in Owo, in remembrance of the victims of the June 5 2022 massacre at the Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church.

The statement read in part, “The demolition of the memorial park in Owo was a necessary step taken to restore the dignity of Owo’s culture and the original purpose of the site. This was done after due consultations with the people of Owo, as represented by the Olowo-in-Council.

“The land used for the Memorial Park originally belonged to AgroMore Limited (of No. 1, Oke Ogun Street, Owo), a company owned by Oba Ajibade Gbadegesin Ogunoye before he became the Olowo of Owo. In 2010, the Olusegun Mimiko administration acquired the land from the company for public use to make way for road dualisation. In January 2021, the (Oluwarotimi) Akeredolu administration re-allocated the land to its original owner, AgroMore Limited.”

It said that at the time of constructing the cenotaph, there was “no record of official revocation of the land from AgroMore,” adding that the state government later realised the procedural errors made in taking possession of the land for the construction of the cenotaph.

“Aside from the official complaints from the Palace of the Olowo, there have also been protests by various segments of the people of Owo against the location of the memorial park, as it was said to be against the culture of the land to site a cenotaph at the heart of the town and in front of the palace.”

“Although no bodies were buried at the site, it was constructed in the replica image of a cemetery, complete with insignia of the dead and inscriptions of the names of all the victims. This, the Olowo-in-Council and the people of Owo frowned upon and protested against as a taboo,” it said.

It further said that there had been ongoing discussions between the palace and the state government on the possibility of relocating the park before the unfortunate demise of the former governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu

“The statement by Bishop Arogundade confirmed that those protests took place in Owo but failed to mention that the Catholic Diocese never sought an engagement with the state government while trying to douse tension over the protests.”

“There had been ongoing discussions between the Palace of the Olowo and the state government on the possibility of relocating the Memorial Park before the unfortunate demise of the former Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu.

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“Some former government officials had taken advantage of the then absence of Akeredolu (due to ill health) to ignore those discussions and rush to complete the cenotaph, which was never commissioned till today,” it said.

According to the statement, the engagement between the Olowo-in-Council and the government continued after Governor Aiyedatiwa assumed office, adding that the governor then directed officials of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Lands and Housing, and the Owo Local Government to revisit the issue to relocate the memorial park.

“After an agreement was reached with the Palace of the Olowo on the relocation of the cenotaph, the state government took the decision to reverse the faulty revocation of the land, returning it to its rightful owner: the Olowo of Owo. It was, therefore, the Olowo of Owo and AgroMore Limited—the rightful owners of the land—that carried out the demolition of the cenotaph, with the approval of the state government.”

“Governor Aiyedatiwa has commissioned a team of government officials to liaise with relevant stakeholders to make arrangements to build a new cenotaph at a location acceptable to the people of Owo,” it added.

The Catholic diocese, in a statement signed by the Catholic Bishop of Ondo Diocese, Most Rev. Jude Arogundade, had expressed disappointment over the demolition.

According to the statement, the demolition was a “violation of our common respect for the dignity of life and the memory shared of the “41 brothers and sisters who were unjustly killed” on June 2, 2022.

It added, “The site was legitimately acquired and developed by the state government and publicly designated as a memorial park for honouring the victims.”