Owo Church Massacre: Court Sentences Four Terrorists to Death
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday sentenced four members of a terrorist cell linked to the June 5, 2022 attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State, to death by hanging.
The court found the convicts guilty of participating in the deadly assault that claimed the lives of more than 40 worshippers and left over 100 others injured during a Pentecost service.
Delivering judgment, Justice Emeka Nwite convicted Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, 25; Al-Qasim Idris, 20; Jamiu Abdulmalik, 26; and Abdulhaleem Idris, 25, on a nine-count terrorism charge filed by the Department of State Services (DSS) on behalf of the Federal Government.
However, the court discharged and acquitted the fifth defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar, 47, after ruling that the prosecution failed to establish a sufficient link between him and the attack.
Justice Nwite held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt, noting that the evidence presented before the court clearly established the involvement of the four convicts in the activities of the terrorist group responsible for the massacre.
According to the court, the convicts were key members of an Al-Shabaab terrorist cell operating in Kogi State and actively participated in the attack on the Catholic church in Owo.
The prosecution told the court that the attackers stormed the church during worship, held congregants hostage and unleashed a coordinated assault that resulted in widespread casualties and destruction.
The terrorists were said to have deployed improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and AK-47 rifles in carrying out the attack in furtherance of their extremist ideology.
To prove its case, the prosecution called 11 witnesses and tendered 23 exhibits, including confessional statements and a digital forensic report linking the defendants to the crime.
Among the exhibits admitted by the court was a mobile device containing communications allegedly exchanged by the defendants before and after the attack.
One of the prosecution witnesses, a Catholic priest who survived the incident, gave a harrowing account of how the assailants detonated at least three explosive devices inside the church, triggering panic, bloodshed and chaos among worshippers.
Justice Nwite ruled that the totality of the evidence presented by the prosecution firmly connected the four convicts to the attack and justified their conviction on all terrorism-related counts.
The Owo church massacre remains one of the deadliest attacks on a place of worship in Nigeria’s recent history, drawing national and international condemnation and renewed calls for stronger measures against terrorism and violent extremism.