Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced four men to death by hanging for their involvement in the deadly June 5, 2022 attack on Saint Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State.
The judgment was delivered on Wednesday after the court found the defendants guilty of terrorism charges filed by the Department of State Services (DSS).
Delivering judgment in suit number FHC/ABJ/CR/301/2025, Justice Nwite held that the prosecution successfully proved its case beyond reasonable doubt against the accused persons.
According to the court, the convicts were key members of an Al-Shabaab-linked terrorist cell operating in Kogi State. Evidence presented showed that they joined the group in 2021 and participated in planning meetings held in Kogi and Ondo states on May 30 and June 4, 2022, ahead of the attack.
The court found that the men stormed Saint Francis Catholic Church during a Pentecost Sunday service on June 5, 2022, where they held worshippers hostage and carried out the attack using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and AK-47 rifles in pursuit of their extremist ideology.
The four men sentenced to death are:
- Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, 25;
- Al Qasim Idris, 20;
- Jamiu Abdulmalik, 26; and
- Abdulhaleem Idris, 25.
They were among five defendants standing trial on a nine-count charge bordering on terrorism and other offences linked to the massacre.
However, the fifth defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar, 47, was discharged and acquitted after the court found insufficient evidence to establish his involvement in the attack.
Investigations revealed that all five suspects were arrested in August 2022 at various locations in Kogi and Ondo states. Security operatives reportedly tracked them through geospatial network filtering technology, which helped identify phone activities within the vicinity of the attack scene.
The Owo church attack remains one of Nigeria’s deadliest assaults on a place of worship in recent years. More than 40 worshippers were killed, while over 100 others sustained varying degrees of injuries, sparking outrage and condemnation both within Nigeria and internationally.
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