What happened in Owo, Ondo state on Sunday most not be allowed to go the way of several similar others. This is one death too many.

Even the locale could not deter or scare the murderous conscience of the dare-devil killers and their clandestine paymasters. This is serious and must be taken seriously.

This massacre points to several underlying but probable existential reason why we must sit-down to discuss our union, it’s continued viability vis-a-vis her secularism. Not to think towards this direction is to play the ostrich while tacitly alluding to the fact that Nigeria belongs to a few who owns her certificate of occupancy recklessly but fearlessly.

Our nation has become a murderous field, laden with metaphorical mines propelled and lubricated
by hate, religious intolerance and collective myopia of the highest quality and crudity.

It is on record that the ondo state governor has been very vocal against the killer herdsmen menace in the bushes and lonely roads of his state. It was on this backdrop that he championed the establishment of the initially controversial local security outfit, the Amotekun.

Paradoxically and against the run of play, his state and particularly his ancestral city of Owo has become the victim of this dastardly act capable of instigating more hatred and putting a knife to the already weakened cord that held us together as a people.

While it may be too early to insinuate a possible culpability of some extraneous tendencies and externalities of factors that may aid this mayhem, all accusing fingers are primarily pointing to the murderous Fulani men who have an axe to grind with Governor Akerodolu. At least, those who saw them while they were fleeing after the havoc said so.

For how long should we allow this monster of reckless endangerment of mankind to fester in Nigeria? When are we going to stop the bleeding points of our beleaguered union? When will the government of the day, for once, focus their attention away from politics to the existential threat staring at us in the face?

How long will it take to hear another devastating news and the accompanying official obscurantism and condolences from the same people who swore to an oath to protect us? Who are these killers that cannot be found and fixed in record time? Why are they invincible and yet not invisible? I am tired. May the souls of the dead rest in peace.

• Austen AKHAGBEME is a Columnist with Blank NEWS Online