Court Sentences Four Men Involved In 2022 Owo Church Attack To Death By Hanging

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]conversation. Those who take innocent lives must be made to face the full weight of the law. A reckoning has come for four members of Al-Shabaab terrorist group over their roles in the June 5, 2022 attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, in Ondo State, which left more than 40 worshipers dead and over 100 others injured. The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has convicted and sentenced the convicts, Idris Abdul Malik Omeiza, Al-Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdul Malik, and Abdul Halim Idris to death by hanging after they were found guilty on a nine-count charge of terrorism filed against them by the Department of State Services, DSS. A fifth defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar, was discharged after the court found insufficient evidence linking him to the attack.

[00:00:55]Delivering the judgment, Justice Emeka Nwite held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt. I mean, Biko, after 4 years, would you say this judgment has finally delivered uh justice to the victims and also their families?

[00:01:15]>> Yes, certainly. And this is what we expect.

[00:01:20]We shouldn't have a situation in which 20 years after people have been killed, there's no justice because it prolongs the pain of families of the victim of victims.

[00:01:37]But when justice is served quickly, at least it brings closure to that matter. Yes, they will still, every time they they remember their loved ones, it will bring tears to their eyes, but it is much better for justice to be done and to be seen to have been done in a jiffy. It shouldn't take so long.

[00:02:04]And that's why I'm very impressed with the current leadership of the DSS because incrementally these enemies of the Nigerian state who go from time from point to point killing our people.

[00:02:21]The DSS usually rises to the occasion. We said here the other day that we expect the DSS to get hold of the people who carried out that large-scale attack on a suburb of Jos and killed a lot of people.

[00:02:45]And just as we expected them to do within a short time, they arrested those guys.

[00:02:52]The same way they arrested those who carried out the killings in Benue.

[00:03:00]Yelwa What's the place called?

[00:03:04]Yelwata Yelwata They got hold of them. They put them on trial. The same way that these people have received justice, those ones will receive justice. In fact, to tell you the extent of the work that the DSS did, within a short time, these guys began to confess. They confessed their sins.

[00:03:27]So, it wasn't difficult. They didn't really waste the time of the court.

[00:03:31]And the Lakurawa's even the leadership of Lakurawa Mamudawas, the DSS has also put some of their leaders in detention to the point that the Americans even called to say, "Well done, Nigeria."

[00:03:46]They don't always um praise us in this kind of situation, but the DSS did a good job and they earned commendation for our country. So, in this case, what did they do?

[00:04:01]The DSS provided 19 witnesses and 23 exhibits, including forensic >> Mhm.

[00:04:08]>> evidence.

[00:04:09]And they showed through phone communications, all of the communications that these people were were having, the DSS they harvested their communication and investigation showed that they were actually attending planning meetings between May 30 and June 4, 2022.

[00:04:30]The investigations also showed that the cell operated from Adavi local government area of Kogi State.

[00:04:39]>> Kogi State?

[00:04:40]>> Yes.

[00:04:42]Adavi local government is the biggest by land mass in the whole of Ebira land.

[00:04:47]>> Okay.

[00:04:48]>> Yes. Adavi local government stretches even into Lokoja.

[00:04:53]>> Oh.

[00:04:54]>> Yes. It stretches >> That big?

[00:04:56]>> Yes. It stretches into Lokoja.

[00:05:00]So, they have land, they have forest that is not present in places like Okene, like Okene, you know.

[00:05:12]Now, they have terror cells in there.

[00:05:14]I've said it before, the Ansaru faction of Boko Haram that broke off that >> Mhm.

[00:05:21]>> a good number of their directing minds and their leaders are from Kogi State.

[00:05:29]They are from Ebira speaking part of Kogi State. And you see, even the four people that were convicted >> Looking at the name.

[00:05:37]>> They are from Ebira land.

[00:05:38]>> Ebira land?

[00:05:39]>> Yes.

[00:05:40]When you said Idris Abdulmalik or Meiza, or Meiza, that's how the names were announced, 25 years.

[00:05:47]That name is an Ibrahim name. But I want to keep it at this stage because the terrorist is a terrorist whether it's real or not, there is a need to sanitize that whole area.

[00:06:00]Right up to the border of Kogi State with the FCT. That is Abuja like Abuja area.

[00:06:09]Right up to Nasarawa State.

[00:06:14]There are cells.

[00:06:17]There are cells of terrorists in all those areas.

[00:06:21]And as I've said before, the group that kidnapped these boys from their school in the Wumishi area, they belong to Ansaru, the Boko Haram faction.

[00:06:38]The breakaway faction of Boko Haram. I can't call them faction anymore. They are their own now. It's a breakaway.

[00:06:45]They broke away from Boko Haram. They are the ones who kidnapped those children. And now they are asking for unreasonable demands. I heard you talk about it yesterday. Have you heard anybody who said I lied?

[00:06:57]Because it's the truth.

[00:06:59]And that is why doing that deal to get those children out has been really really problematic.

[00:07:06]Because in the past, they will make demands. They will say, "Release our commanders who are in so so so so prison and we will we will release.

[00:07:15]Release our bomb maker." This is the prison where he is. They get some of the best bomb makers in their history.

[00:07:22]Once they are detained and we are wasting time, judiciary does not serve justice on time, they will go and kidnap people and demand that it is those people. Sometimes they will even say, "Go and bring our wives." Absolute nonsense happening in my country.

[00:07:36]>> [clears throat] >> They asked that they should bring their wives. They brought their wives. They put their wives in in private jet.

[00:07:46]I feel pain talking about these things, but it is the truth. But people must know the extent of the problem that we have as a country.

[00:07:53]Now bandits on the loose, terrorists on the loose, they now want to dictate the pace of things.

[00:07:59]>> It's not It can't It can't happen.

[00:08:03]>> You You You want your commanders released? Because who are in who are in in our prisons in exchange for these children.

[00:08:14]There's no government that will find itself in that situation and just rush to go and do a deal. I don't know how you want to do it.

[00:08:21]>> I agree.

[00:08:22]>> We have them encircled, no doubt.

[00:08:25]But again, there's the risk of collateral damage.

[00:08:29]And I heard the governor of Oyo State saying none of those children should die, this and that. I don't want those children to die.

[00:08:37]>> Yes.

[00:08:37]>> But there are demands that terrorists will make that no serious country will say, "Okay, we are going to agree."

[00:08:45]>> Mhm.

[00:08:47]>> I don't know.

[00:08:48]>> All right. Now, looking at this the court decision, what What does the court decision tell us about Nigeria's ability to successfully prosecute, investigate, you know, terrorism cases?

[00:09:00]>> First of all, I think I think the DSS deserves to be commended. They have shown that Nigeria is possible, that a law-abiding society is possible, that it is possible to investigate any act of crime criminal act committed by anybody so far by the fact that they have the required witnesses. Number two is the fact that the federal government through the federal minister of justice, whatever it will take the National Assembly to expedite action on expeditious trial of criminals. For the people are criminals by other special tribunal or special commission, so that it will reduce the time it will take because justice delayed is justice denied. If it is reduced now, it is almost 2000 now, 2026 26 years. By Friday, it will be 6 years that they committed that heinous crime.

[00:09:50]We can We need a kind of a tribunal that will shorten that time to probably 1 year or 2 years. It is possible in Nigeria. If the DSS can do what they have done, it is possible. Another issue is that uh Nigerians have to be informed that you see it's not so easy that what happened to somebody else or they say that I have my house, I have military, they have navy. Look, the lives of 48 people is in danger.

[00:10:13]And the government has to be cautious.

[00:10:16]You know, America, it took America about 5 or 7 years to get Osama bin Laden.

[00:10:20]They did everything possible to make sure that he and it was him and they took him. They took him down. Osama bin Laden did everything to get him. So, we also have to intensify effort. As the government is trying to free this one, I think we also have to activate all communities in Nigeria. I always tell people that to every crime that happens anywhere, there are local people that are cooperating, that are trying I I just saw a video from Oshogbo today that they they apprehended one guy along the street of Oshogbo. He dressed like a military guy and he was not a military man. So, I think all citizens of Nigeria, this is a national emergency.

[00:10:56]This is not a thing to blame as the president is not working. Everything about everybody >> Yeah, the head of state governor said something like that.

[00:11:03]>> eternal vigilance. And our governors, too, they should activate They should stop playing politics with security of the people. They should spend the money that is meant for security well.

[00:11:15]Absolutely. All