Among those paying respects to the 40 dead was Laide Ajanaku, whose parents John Adesina Ajanaku, 67, and mother Olabimpe Susanah, 64, were killed when a group of armed men were killed during a Pentecost mass at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo the Stormed community , Southwest Nigeria.
There was a discrepancy in the numbers given to the media by authorities, with a local lawmaker Adeyemi Olayemi telling CNN that nearly 50 people died in the gunfire after the attackers came in on motorcycles.
Ajanaku told CNN that she counted 39 images in a memorial booklet made for the victims of the funeral service.
A list of the injured also showed 74 people who were being treated in hospital for “varying degrees of severity”, according to the leaflet.
“There are 31 with pictures and 8 empty seats for some of the victims,” she told CNN on duty.
“Some Igbo people carried their dead back to the south-east of the country. I’m still not sure how many died,” she said.
Ajanaku added that the priest paid tribute to the victims, including a two-year-old and a 65-year-old.
Laide described the mood in the crowded hall as “gloomy,” adding that some bewildered relatives were rolling on the floor and some inside the hall were crying.
Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and a former State Governor Olusegun Mimiko were among the dignitaries present at the fair.
After the shooting, Pope Francis prayed for the victims, who “were painfully assaulted at a time of celebration,” the Vatican said in a statement.
Fatal assaults by motorcycle gangs are rare in south-west Nigeria. Such attacks are more widespread in much of the country’s north, which is under constant siege by Boko Haram terrorists and marauding gunmen known locally as “bandits”. The attack on Owo Church came after another church tragedy that left 31 people dead and others injured by a stampede at a church event in the southeastern Nigerian town of Port Harcourt.