A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has sentenced four men to death by hanging over the deadly June 5, 2022 attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, in southwest Nigeria. According to Channels Television, the ruling brings a measure of legal closure to one of the most harrowing assaults on a place of worship in the country, almost exactly four years after gunmen turned a Sunday service into a scene of carnage.
The attack on the church left more than 40 worshippers dead and over 100 others injured, as assailants opened fire and detonated explosives among congregants gathered for mass. The massacre shocked Nigeria and drew international condemnation, and the long wait for a verdict had been closely followed by survivors, victims' families and the wider Ondo State community.
Delivering judgment, Justice Emeka Nwite convicted four of the defendants on all nine counts brought against them. The men were found guilty of committing acts of terrorism in breach of the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act, with the charges spanning membership of a proscribed terrorist group, conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, kidnapping, hostage taking and the killing of the more than 40 worshippers.
The four convicts were identified as Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, Al Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik and Abdulhaleem Idris. The court linked them to a proscribed group described in the charges as Al-Shabab, an affiliate of the Islamic State West Africa Province, the network widely blamed for the assault on the church in the years since it occurred.
In handing down the sentence, the judge held that the prosecution had proved its case against the four men beyond reasonable doubt. The verdict, which carries the death penalty by hanging, was delivered in a courtroom that fell silent as the judgment many Nigerians had awaited for years was finally read out by the presiding judge.
A fifth defendant, however, did not share the same fate. Justice Nwite held that the prosecution had failed to prove its case against Momoh Otuho Abubakar, and accordingly the court discharged and acquitted him on all the charges he faced. The distinction underscored the court's insistence that each defendant be judged strictly on the strength of the evidence presented.
The conviction has been welcomed by authorities in Ondo State, where the governor described the outcome as justice taking its course for the victims and their families. Coming close to the fourth anniversary of the massacre, the judgment is seen as a significant step in holding accountable those responsible for an atrocity that left deep scars on the town of Owo and on Nigeria as a whole.