A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has sentenced four members of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group to death by hanging for their involvement in the June 5, 2022 attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, which left more than 40 worshippers dead and over 100 others injured.
Justice Emeka Nwite handed down the verdict after convicting 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 on behalf of the Federal Government.
A fifth defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar, 47, was discharged and acquitted after the court found insufficient evidence linking him to the attack.
Justice Nwite convicted the four defendants on all nine counts, citing crimes including membership of a proscribed terrorist group Al-Shabaab, an ISWAP affiliate conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, and the kidnapping, hostage-taking, and killing of over 40 worshippers.
According to the prosecution, the attackers stormed the church, held worshippers hostage, and unleashed violence using improvised explosive devices and AK-47 rifles in furtherance of their extremist religious ideology.
To establish its case, the prosecution called 11 witnesses and tendered 23 exhibits, including confessional statements and a digital forensic examination report.
The attack which was carried out during a Pentecost Sunday service kept the nation at standstill, drawing widespread condemnation from agencies within and outside Nigeria.
More than three years after the massacre, Wednesday’s verdict was seen as a landmark moment for justice in one of Nigeria’s most horrific acts of religious terrorism in recent memory.
