A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has sentenced four men to death by hanging for their roles in the June 5, 2022 terrorist attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, in a landmark judgment that closes one of the most significant terrorism trials in Nigeria’s recent history.
Justice Emeka Nwite delivered the judgment on Wednesday in charge number FHC/ABJ/CR/301/2025, four years after gunmen and bombers stormed the church during a Pentecost Sunday service and opened fire on worshippers, killing at least 41 people and injuring over 140 others.
He said he was satisfied that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt against the four defendants.
Those convicted on the nine-count terrorism charge filed by the Department of State Services (DSS) on behalf of the Federal Government were Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, 25, Al Qasim Idris, 20, Jamiu Abdulmalik, 26, and Abdulhaleem Idris, 25. All four were sentenced to death by hanging.
The fifth defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar, 47, was discharged for want of evidence linking him to the attack.
The court held that the four convicted men were principal members of an Al-Shabaab terrorist cell operating in Kogi State who joined the group in 2021, attended planning meetings in Kogi and Ondo States on May 30 and June 4, 2022, and then invaded the church on June 5, holding worshippers hostage and using improvised explosive devices and AK-47 rifles in furtherance of their religious ideology.
All five defendants had been arrested in August 2022 at different locations in Kogi and Ondo States, where they had been tracked using geospatial network filtering technology that isolated phone activity within the attack area.
To prove the case, the prosecution called 11 witnesses and tendered 23 exhibits including confessional statements, a digital forensic examination report and a Tecno mobile phone that revealed communications exchanged between the defendants before and after the attack.
Among those who testified was a Catholic priest who gave a blood-chilling account of how the assailants detonated no fewer than three explosives inside the church.
An eyewitness also testified that he survived by hiding in the church restroom with children as the bombs went off around him.
The trial, which began on August 1, 2025, was vigorously prosecuted by the DSS, whose lead counsel Ayodeji Adedipe SAN had urged the court to impose the maximum penalty, arguing that the scale of bloodshed demanded nothing less than the full weight of the law.
Defence counsel Abdullahi Mohammed had urged the court to discharge and acquit all five defendants, arguing that the prosecution had failed to prove the allegations beyond reasonable doubt.
The attack drew worldwide condemnation including from Pope Francis, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, the European Union and the United Kingdom government.
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