THE Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Wednesday sentenced four members of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group to death by hanging for their involvement in the June 5, 2022, attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, which left more than 40 worshippers dead and over 100 others injured.
News Point Nigeria reports that the trial judge, Emeka Nwite, handed down the sentence after convicting Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, 25; Al Qasim Idris, 20; Jamiu Abdulmalik, 26; and Abdulhaleem Idris, 25, on a nine-count terrorism charge filed by the Department of State Services on behalf of the Federal Government.
The court, however, discharged and acquitted the fifth defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar, 47, after finding insufficient evidence linking him to the terrorist attack.
Delivering judgment, Justice Nwite held that the prosecution successfully proved the guilt of the four convicts beyond reasonable doubt, stating that the evidence before the court clearly established that they were members of, and active participants in, the activities of the terrorist group responsible for the deadly assault.
The judge found that the convicts were principal members of an Al-Shabaab terrorist cell operating in Kogi State and that they directly participated in the attack on the church during a Pentecost service.
According to the prosecution, the attackers stormed the church, held worshippers hostage and unleashed violence that resulted in massive casualties and destruction.
The prosecution further stated that the assailants used improvised explosive devices and AK-47 rifles in carrying out the attack in furtherance of their extremist religious ideology.
To establish its case, the prosecution called 11 witnesses and tendered 23 exhibits before the court, including confessional statements allegedly made by the defendants and a digital forensic examination report.
Among the exhibits admitted in evidence was a technophone device said to contain communications exchanged by the defendants before and after the attack.
One of the prosecution witnesses, a Catholic priest who survived the incident, gave what the court described as a chilling account of the attack, narrating how the assailants detonated at least three explosive devices inside the church, causing panic, bloodshed and widespread devastation among worshippers.
Justice Nwite held that the totality of the evidence presented by the prosecution firmly linked the four convicts to the attack and justified their conviction on all the terrorism-related charges.
The judgment brings to a close one of Nigeria’s most high-profile terrorism trials arising from the June 2022 massacre that shocked the nation and drew widespread condemnation from within and outside the country.
