Court Sentences Four Owo Church Attack Suspects To Death

*Discharges, Acquits 5th Suspect
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‎JUSTICE Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday, June 3, sentenced four suspects to death by hanging for their direct involvement in the deadly June 5, 2022, terrorists 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, in which over 40 worshippers were killed and over 100 injured.
Those condemned are Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza (25), Al Qasim Idris (20), Jamiu Abdulmalik (26) and Abdulhaleem Idris (25).
The fifth defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar (47), was discharged and acquitted. ‎
‎ In his judgment on Wednesday, June 3, 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; kidnapping; hostage-taking; and killing the over 40 worshippers.
The Judge held that the prosecution proved its case against the convicts beyond reasonable doubt, but failed to prove its case against the fifth defendant.
In the course of the trial, the DSS had called witnesses to establish the allegations against the defendants since the case 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 their statements were voluntarily given.
One of the five accused persons, Omeiza, while opening his defence, led in evidence in an accelerated hearing conducted at the instance of the DSS, by his lawyer, Abdullahi Muhammad, had told the court how he was arrested by the secret Police.
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, he recounted that it was at the DSS facility in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, that he met the fifth defendant, Abubakar, who had also been arrested by operatives.
He explained that while at the DSS office, 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, adding that 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 also claimed that he was detained alongside his elder brother in the same room where interrogators questioned them about the attack.
In his final submission, Counsel for the prosecution, Ayodeji Adedipe (SAN), 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 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.
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.