A Department of State Services (DSS) witness on Tuesday identified one of the suspects standing trial over the 05 June 2022 attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State, as a member of the gunmen who carried out the deadly assault.
Testifying before the Federal High Court in Abuja, the witness said he directly engaged the attackers in a gun battle shortly after the incident and was able to clearly recognise the second defendant, Al Qasim Idris, during the exchange.
The witness, identified in court as “SSG” for security reasons, told the court that he is an officer of the Ondo State Security Network, Amotekun, and was deployed to the scene immediately after the attack, which claimed dozens of lives.
Led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Ayodeji Adedipe, SAN, the witness said he received a distress call from his state commander instructing him and his team to proceed to the church.
According to him, what he encountered on arrival was horrific.
“When we got to the church, I saw blood everywhere and corpses of children, men and women on the floor, including inside the church hall,” he said.
He estimated that he saw about 35 bodies at the scene.
SSG told the court that eyewitnesses informed his team that the attackers had just fled the church in a blue Nissan Sunny vehicle and were heading towards Achievers University along Ute Road.
He said his team pursued the suspects in their patrol vehicle and caught up with them at Ijegunman Village, where the gunmen abandoned their car and ran into the bush.
“Immediately they saw us, they ran into the bush. They were four in number,” he said.
He said a search of the abandoned vehicle revealed a pack of sachet water, adding that the car bore registration number AKR 895 AG. Two of his men were instructed to drive the vehicle to the Amotekun office in Owo.
The witness said he, alongside a local hunter attached to his team, pursued the fleeing suspects into the bush, where they later encountered them at close range.
“They all had AK-47 rifles. They started shooting at us, and I also responded with my pump-action gun,” he said.
According to him, during the gunfire exchange, three of the attackers fled deeper into the forest, while one stayed behind, took cover behind a tree and shot at them.
He told the court that the attacker killed the hunter who was standing behind him.
SSG said he saw the gunman who shot the hunter at close range and could identify him despite the incident having occurred nearly four years ago.
At this point, the prosecution applied for the witness to move closer to the dock to identify the suspect. The defence counsel, Abdullahi Mohammad, did not oppose the application.
With the court’s permission, the witness stepped forward and pointed directly at Al Qasim Idris, the second defendant, identifying him as the man who shot and killed the hunter.
Under cross-examination, the witness again moved closer to the dock and reaffirmed his identification of the same defendant.
When questioned by the defence on why he did not arrest the suspect at the scene, the witness explained that the man was armed with an AK-47 rifle, which he said was far more powerful than his own weapon.
“I was also not sure whether the other three had hidden somewhere and could come back to attack me,” he said.
The witness, who described himself as an Assistant Commander in Amotekun, said the suspect was later arrested through joint operations involving all security agencies in Ondo State.
He added that the recovered vehicle was transferred to Amotekun’s state headquarters and that determining its ownership was beyond his authority.
SSG also told the court that on June 6, 2022, he took photographs of the recovered vehicle using his Samsung Galaxy A12 phone. He identified the photographs in court, after which they were tendered and admitted as evidence without objection.
Earlier in the proceedings, the sixth prosecution witness (PW-6), identified as “SSF”, testified as a pathologist who conducted autopsies on victims of the attack.
A certified true copy of the autopsy report was tendered and admitted into evidence.
The pathologist identified several victims listed in the report, including Dr. Ajanaku John Adesina, John Bosede, Onileke Ester Ilerioluwa, and Onuoha Deborah.
On the cause of death, the witness said:
“All the bodies bore marks of gunshot injuries arising from bullets fired from firearms at varying distances, causing organ ruptures and skeletal damage, leading to massive bleeding and death.”
The DSS is prosecuting five defendants over alleged terrorism offences linked to the Owo church attack. They are Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza (25), Al Qasim Idris (20), Jamiu Abdulmalik (26), Abdulhaleem Idris (25), and Momoh Otuho Abubakar (47).
The identification of Al Qasim Idris by PW-7 marks the second time a prosecution witness has directly linked some of the defendants to the attack. Earlier, another witness who was present in the church during the massacre also identified Al Qasim Idris and Abdulhaleem Idris as among the attackers.
The trial continues.
