Four years after the horrific June 5, 2022 attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, a Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced four men to death by hanging.
The defendants—all in their early 20s and linked to an ISWAP-affiliated terrorist cell—were convicted on a nine-count terrorism charge for the massacre that claimed over 40 lives. A fifth co-defendant was discharged and acquitted.
In a gripping trial that featured emotional testimonies from survivors—including a victim permanently maimed by the blast—and masked witnesses, Justice Emeka Nwite ruled that the prosecution proved its case beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Despite defense claims that confessions were extracted through brutal torture and electric shocks, the court upheld the digital forensics, phone tracking, and eyewitness evidence presented by the DSS.
