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Witnesses at the Department of State Services (DSS) in the ongoing trial of four men for allegedly being behind the June 5, 2022 attack on St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, on Tuesday identified one of the defendants as some of the actual attackers.
The witness, who said he was a member of the Ondo Security Network (Amotekun), told the Federal High Court in Abuja that he was able to identify the second defendant (Al Qassim Idris) because of the close range gunfight.
This is the second time since the trial began that prosecution witnesses have identified some of the defendants as the assailants.
A second prosecution witness, identified as “SSB,” said he was a member of the church and was present at the time of the attack, and in his testimony on January 13 identified Al-Qassim Idris (second defendant) and Abdulhaleem Idris (fourth defendant) as witnesses among the attackers.
The State Department has charged Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, 25, Al Qassim Idris, 20, Jamiu Abdulmalik, 26, Abdulhaleem Idris, 25, and Momo Otuho Abubakar, 47, in connection with the June 5, 2022 church attack.
The seventh prosecution witness (PW7), identified as the “SSG”, Mr. Ayodeji Adedipe (SAN), after being presented with evidence by the prosecution lawyer, told the court that he ordered him and his team to move to the church out of fear of attack by the state commander.
Witnesses said that when they arrived at the church, they saw blood stains everywhere and the bodies of children, men and women lying on the floor, including in the church hall. He said he saw 35 bodies.
PW7 himself and his team members said they were told that the attackers had left the church in a Nissan Sunny and were heading in a particular direction.
An eyewitness said: “I learned that the attackers had moved towards Achievers College in Utrode.My men and I chased them in a police car.
“When we arrived at Ijegunman village, they ran into the bushes as soon as they noticed us. There were four of them.
“When they ran into the brush, they left their car on the side of the road in Ijeganman, Ute. I checked the car and saw a pack of clean water.
“The color of the car is blue.The registration number is AKR/895/AG Nissan Sunny.Therefore, I drove two of my men to the Amotekun office in Owo,” he said.
SSG told the court that himself and the hunters working with his team pursued the fleeing attackers in the bush and at one point encountered them where they were hiding.
Witnesses said the assailants each had AK47 rifles and began firing, but the witness responded with a pump-action rifle.
He said that during the gunfight, three of the assailants ran deep into the bush, and one of them hid behind a tree and took aim with an AK47 rifle, but was able to kill the hunter who was behind him.
Witnesses said the incident happened four years ago, but they saw the man who shot Hunter at close range and were able to identify him.
At that point, Adedipe applied to the court to allow witnesses to approach the dock where the defendant was standing in order to identify the man who shot Hunter, but his lawyer, Abdullahi Mohamad, did not object.
With the judge’s permission, the witness got off the witness stand and approached the defendant’s box, where he pointed at the second defendant, Al Qassim Idris, 20.
The witness said on the second day, June 6, 2022, he took photographs of the recovered vehicle before it was transferred to the Amotekun state headquarters.
SSG said he used his mobile phone (Samsung Galaxy A12) to take photos of the vehicle. He identified the photo when shown to the prosecuting attorney, and the photo was subsequently submitted and admitted into evidence.
The witness said he then transferred both the report and the vehicle to the Amotekun state headquarters.
During cross-examination by witness Mohammad, who was asked to reaffirm who he had actually seen, the SSG approached the dock again and still pointed to the second defendant.
When asked why they had not been able to arrest the second defendant, who was alone, while the other three had moved deeper into the bush, the witness said they could not have done so because the man had an AK47 rifle, which was more powerful than his own pump-action rifle.
The witness said he was Amotekun’s second-in-command and did not know if the other three were hiding somewhere to come after them later.
PW7 stated that the second defendant was arrested as a result of the cooperation of all security agencies in Ondo State.
Regarding the current whereabouts of the recovered car, he said it was at the company’s headquarters, where he handed it over to his superiors, and only his superiors could answer questions about whether an investigation had been conducted to ascertain the actual owner of the car.
Earlier, the sixth prosecution witness (PW6), identified as ‘SSF’, had described himself as a pathologist who had performed autopsies on the bodies of the church attack victims.
A true autopsy transcript (CTC) was submitted by the prosecution and admitted into evidence without objection from the defense.
Witnesses were asked to identify some of the names of the bodies mentioned in the autopsy report.
He identified Dr. Ajanaku John Adesina who is listed on page 11 of 35 as body number 9. John Bosede, listed as text number 17 on page 18 of 35. Onireke Esther Ilerioluwa is listed as chassis number 13 on page 14 of 35 and Onuoha Deborah is listed as chassis number 4 on page 29 of 35.
Regarding the cause of death of the bodies he examined, the witness said: “In general, all bodies had signs of gunshot wounds. This was caused by bullets that would have been fired from various distances from the bodies, causing rupture of organs and damage to the skeleton, causing massive bleeding and exsanguination, resulting in death.”
