Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced four suspects to death by hanging for carrying out the deadly June 5, 2022 attack on Saint Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State.
The convicts were among the five accused persons who had been standing trial on a nine-count terrorism charge filed by the Department of State Services (DSS), in connection with the attack at the church where over 40 worshippers were killed, and over 100 suffered varying degrees of injury.
They are Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza (25), Al Qasim Idris (20), Jamiu Abdulmalik (26), and Abdulhaleem Idris (25).
In his verdict, Justice Nwite convicted the four defendants on all nine counts of committing acts of terrorism in breach of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, citing crimes including membership of a proscribed terrorist group — Al-Shabab (an ISWAP affiliate), conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, and kidnapping, hostage-taking and killing the over 40 worshippers.
He held that the prosecution proved its case against the convicts beyond reasonable doubt.
Nwite, however, held that the prosecution failed to prove its case against the fifth defendant.
Scores of people were killed, and many were injured when gunmen opened fire on worshippers at the Catholic Church in the headquarters of Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State.
The incident sparked widespread condemnation, with various individuals and groups calling on the government to ensure the assailants were arrested and brought to justice.
Prosecution, Defence
The DSS had called witnesses to establish the allegations against the defendants in the trial that began on August 1, 2025.
The trial court admitted the confessional statements of the defendants following the conclusion of the trial- within-trial conducted to establish that the witnesses’ statements were voluntarily given.
One of the five accused persons, Omeiza, had told the court how he was arrested by the secret police.
Opening his defence, he was led in evidence in an accelerated hearing conducted at the instance of the DSS, by his lawyer, Abdullahi Muhammad.
Although Omeiza claimed to be an auxiliary nurse, he chose to narrate his testimony in Ebira, prompting the court to seek an interpreter.
He told the court that he was arrested on August 1, 2022, alongside two other young boys named Hauwa and Yusuf, in the same house.
In his lengthy testimony, the defendant told the court that it was at the DSS facility in Lokoja, the state capital, that he met the fifth defendant, Abubakar, who had also been arrested by operatives of the secret police.
At the DSS office in Lokoja, Omeiza had explained that the four of them were kept in a room where information in respect of their names, schools attended, their work, and their father’s name was obtained and recorded.
He had said the following day, he volunteered a statement and was in detention till August 18, 2022, when he got to know that his elder brother was also arrested.
Omeiza had also claimed he was detained alongside his elder brother in the same room where interrogators questioned them about the attack on the Owo Catholic Church.
In his final submission, counsel for the prosecution, Ayodeji Adedipe (SAN), had urged the court to convict the defendants and impose the maximum sentence of death in view of the enormity of the crime they allegedly committed.
Adedipe had argued that the prosecution painstakingly established its case against the defendants through compelling evidence and detailed investigations, which he said reflected the determination of security agencies to ensure accountability for one of the deadliest attacks on innocent worshippers in Nigerian history.
But counsel for the defendants, Abdullahi Mohammad, prayed the court to discharge and acquit his clients on the grounds that the prosecution was unable to establish its case against them.
