Nigerian court hand down death sentence for Penetecost church atttackers

The Bishop of Ondo Jude Arogundade, who has campaigned internationally for the victims of the 2022 attack, welcomed the convictions but called for greater efforts to identify and prosecute the sponsors of terrorism.

A federal court in Abuja sentenced to death four terrorists involved in the 2022 Pentecost attack on a Catholic church in southwest Nigeria.

Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, 25, Al Qasim Idris, 20, Jamiu Abdulmalik, 26, and Abdulhaleem Idris, 25, were convicted for their role in the attack on St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State on 5 June 2022, which killed 43 people.

All four are members of the jihadist Al-Shabab movement. A fifth man, 47-year-old Momoh Otuho Abubakar, was acquitted of all the charges.

Justice Emeka Nwite pronounced the four guilty of the nine-count charges and sentenced them to death by hanging, alongside symbolic sentences of life imprisonment and 20 years for conspiracy. The death sentence requires presidential assent.

Ondo’s Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa described the conviction as a victory for the innocent victims. He commended the work of the prosecution team and the courage of the judiciary since the commencement of the trial, and prayed for the repose of the souls of those killed in the 2022 attack and for God’s comfort for the families they left behind. 

During their arraignment, the five men had pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges, prompting the federal government to open a full-scale trial after securing an accelerated trial order from the court.

The prosecution called 11 witnesses, comprising both eyewitnesses to the attack and security operatives who used call locations and network towers to capture the defendants.  The government tendered 23 exhibits, including confessional extra-judicial statements made during their interrogation that were witnessed by a Legal Aid Council lawyer, Daniel Hassan.

After the prosecution case, the defendants acted for themselves without calling any witnesses to support their defence.

Reviewing the case, Justice Nwite found that four of them had joined a proscribed Al-Shabab terrorist group in 2021 through one Odoba and held a meeting at Government High School in Ogaminana, in Adavi Local Council of Kogi State, where they decided to attack the church.

The judge held that the prosecution established beyond reasonable doubt that they detonated an improvised explosive device during the Pentecost Mass, killing 43 people and injuring 163 others. He said the evidence was credible, cogent, positive, verifiable and compelling, warranting their convictions.

Justice Nwite dismissed defence claims that their extra-judicial statements were made under duress and inducement, adding that their signatures and thumbprints on the statements cannot support their denial.

The Bishop of Ondo Jude Arogundade, who has campaigned internationally for the victims, welcomed the convictions but called for greater efforts to identify and prosecute the sponsors of terrorism.

“We are pleased that at last the families and victims in general can move towards a kind a closure although we realise that they will never fully reach closure as they will carry the scars of what happened that day for the rest of their lives,” he told Aid to the Church in Need.

“Many are still traumatised and are still going through medical treatment and many are on the edge – they are still suffering and worried because they don’t know what will happen next.”

Bishop Arogundade continued: “The Church does not accept the death penalty but it is important that those responsible are held accountable.”

He said that those who bring foreign fighters and bandits into the country were guilty of a treasonable offence, emphasising that sponsoring and aiding violent groups to terrorise citizens and displace communities is an assault on Nigeria’s territorial integrity.

He urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration to hold accountable influential individuals who facilitate the entry of armed elements.

Grieving the spirit in Nigeria – one year on from the Pentecost massacre

Christianity under siege in Nigeria

Stay updated — add us as a preferred news source on Google: