Owo Church bloodbath: 10th DSS’ witness narrates how cell phone analysis implicated attackers
A Department of State Services (DSS) officer testified Wednesday in a Federal High Court that cell phone analysis linked five defendants to the June 5, 2022, attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State.
The officer presented evidence showing that phone calls made by the defendants—Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, 25; Al Qasim Idris, 20; Jamiu Abdulmalik, 26; Abdulhaleem Idris, 25; and Momoh Otuho Abubakar, 47—placed them in the vicinity of the crime scene during the attack.
The DSS officer stated that technical data indicated the defendants were near the church at the time of the incident. Additionally, he noted that the defendants provided confessional statements linking them to the attack, recorded in a session witnessed by the Director of the Legal Aid Council after they indicated they could not afford legal representation.
Defense attorney Abdullahi Mohammad objected to the admissibility of these statements, claiming they were not made voluntarily. However, Justice Emeka Nwite overruled the objection and declined to order a trial-within-trial, indicating such a request was inappropriate since the issue at hand was whether the statements were made at all, rather than their voluntariness.
Following the testimony of the 10th prosecution witness, known as SSJ, who detailed how he obtained the confessional statements, prosecuting lawyer Ayodeji Adedipe (SAN) sought to submit these statements as evidence.
Earlier, under cross-examination by Mohammad, the ninth prosecution witness, SSI, reiterated the defendants’ involvement in the attack and provided further details about the DSS investigation. SSI disclosed that the defendants were arrested in August 2022 in Kogi and Ondo states and later interviewed in Abuja.
SSI confirmed that all the defendants are affiliated with ISWAP and operate under a cell known as Al Shabab. He further noted a separate group, Mahmuda, also associated with ISWAP in the region.
According to SSI, after the attack, the fourth defendant returned the weapons used and the rental vehicle to its original location. He also indicated that the defendants utilized two vehicles during the attack: a rented car to reach the church and a second vehicle, stolen from a churchgoer, for their escape.
The witness explained that a meeting at Government Secondary School, Ogaminana, was held before the attack, during which instructions regarding the operation were given. This meeting followed two others conducted on June 3 and 4, 2022.
SSI confirmed that the defendants employed both explosives and ammunition during the assault and asserted that no additional suspects had been arrested by the DSS in connection with the case.
The next hearing in the trial is scheduled for February 19.
