The 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, Owo, Ondo State.
The attack, which occurred during a Pentecost service, left more than 40 worshippers dead and over 100 others injured.
Delivering judgment on Wednesday, 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 on behalf of the Federal Government.
The court, however, discharged and acquitted the fifth defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar, 47, after holding that the prosecution failed to present sufficient evidence linking him to the attack.
Justice Nwite held that the prosecution proved its case against the four convicts beyond reasonable doubt.
The court found that the convicts were members of an Al-Shabaab terrorist cell operating in Kogi State and actively participated in the deadly assault on the church.
According to the prosecution, the attackers stormed the church during worship, held worshippers hostage and unleashed violence using improvised explosive devices and AK-47 rifles in furtherance of their extremist religious ideology.
The prosecution called 11 witnesses and tendered 23 exhibits, including confessional statements and a digital forensic examination report.
Among the exhibits admitted by the court was a Tecno phone allegedly containing communications exchanged by the defendants before and after the attack.
One of the prosecution witnesses, a Catholic priest who survived the attack, narrated how the assailants detonated at least three explosive devices inside the church, causing panic, deaths and injuries among worshippers.
Justice Nwite held that the totality of the evidence firmly linked the four convicts to the terrorist attack and justified their conviction.
The court subsequently sentenced them to death by hanging.
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