A Nigerian court docket has sentenced 4 males to loss of life for attacking a church in southwestern Ondo state in 2022, in a case that shocked the nation.
A gunman opened fireplace on St. Francis Catholic Church within the city of Owo throughout a Pentecostal service, killing 41 worshipers and injuring greater than 100 others.
A court docket within the capital Abuja additionally sentenced Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, Al Qassim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik and Abdulhaleem Idris to twenty years in jail for belonging to a terrorist group.
Presidential consent is required earlier than the loss of life penalty will be carried out in Nigeria. There have been no executions on this nation for a number of years.
Justice Emeka Nwite, who presided over the case, mentioned the proof introduced in opposition to them was “unshakeable and uncontradicted throughout cross-examination”.
He had ordered the trial to be accelerated after the high-profile trial started in August 2025.
In his judgment, Decide Nwite mentioned the prosecution had confirmed its case past an affordable doubt as a result of it had introduced to the court docket witnesses who witnessed the assault, together with witnesses who mentioned they acknowledged two of the defendants because the assailants.
“Accordingly, this court docket finds the primary to fourth defendants responsible of all 9 expenses,” he added.
One of many witnesses heard in court docket was a lady who had each of her legs amputated on the knee and misplaced her left eye on account of the dynamite the attacker detonated.
The 9 expenses embrace taking part in a terrorist group and planning and finishing up homicide.
Prosecutor Ayodeji Adedipe mentioned: “Justice has been served. Justice has been served for the lifeless who had been murdered in chilly blood.”
The person’s lawyer mentioned he would attraction the decision.
In the course of the trial, the defendants mentioned that they had been tortured, together with being hung from the ceiling, being overwhelmed numerous instances, and receiving electrical shocks to their genitals.
The fifth defendant, Momo Otuho Abubakar, was launched by the court docket because of inadequate proof and was acquitted.
He’s suspected of financing the assaults by receiving 800,000 naira (£440, $590) from one other suspect, who continues to be at massive, on two separate events, which he then used to pay the attackers.
Nevertheless, in cross-examination, Mr Abubakar mentioned the cash in his account got here from the proceeds of his agricultural enterprise and the actions of his cooperative. He denied that the opposite 4 defendants had been beneficiaries of the cash.
For the reason that Owo assault, there have been extra assaults on church buildings throughout the nation as Nigeria continues to grapple with the heightened safety state of affairs.
US President Donald Trump has accused Nigeria of failing to guard Christians from jihadist assaults.
On Christmas Day, the US attacked two camps run by jihadist teams in northwestern Nigeria and threatened extra if the assaults continued.
Claims of genocide in opposition to Christians in Nigeria have been circulating in right-wing circles in the US for a while, however teams that monitor political violence in Nigeria say many of the jihadist group’s victims are Muslims.
The Nigerian authorities additionally denies that Christians are being persecuted within the nation.
