The Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced four terrorists to death by hanging for their roles in the gruesome 2022 attack on St Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State. Justice Emeka Nguite handed down the verdict on Wednesday after finding the men guilty of terrorism offenses, in a case that revisited one of the deadliest assaults on worshippers in recent Nigerian memory.
The court convicted four defendants identified in the proceedings as Idris Abdulmalik Omaza, Al-Kasim Idris Jamil, Abdulmalik and Abdul Halim Idris. The judge found them guilty on all counts before pronouncing the death sentence against them.
The attack itself took place on June 5, 2022, a day that had begun like any other Sunday in the community. As worshippers trooped to St Francis Catholic Church to celebrate Pentecost Sunday, gunmen invaded the building, turning the service bloody. Dozens of people were killed and more than 100 others were left wounded in the assault.
Two months after the terror attack, the then Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, announced the arrest of five suspects. They were later arraigned on a nine-count charge bordering on terrorism, and the suspects pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against them.
On the 11th of August 2025, the Department of State Services arraigned the suspects before Justice Nguite of the Federal High Court, who ordered that they be remanded in the custody of the DSS. The trial of the suspects then began on the 19th of August 2025.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that the convicts were principal members of a terrorist cell based in Kogi State. The court was told that they invaded the church and held worshippers hostage, causing extensive destruction, and that they used improvised explosive devices and AK-47 rifles to carry out the attack in furtherance of their ideology.
To prove its case, the prosecution called 11 witnesses and tendered 23 exhibits in evidence. A Catholic priest who presided over the Pentecost Sunday Mass testified that the church service was about to end when gunshots suddenly rang out, causing panic among the worshippers. Justice Nguite then convicted the four defendants on all counts before passing sentence.