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Mr. Owo, one of the five persons accused by the Department of State Services (DSS) for attacking St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo State on June 5, 2022, on Wednesday narrated at the Federal High Court in Abuja how he was arrested by the secret police.
A total of 41 believers were killed in the terrorist attack on the church, and more than 140 sustained various injuries.
DSS called 11 witnesses to prove its case against the defendants in a trial that began on August 1, 2025. The trial court admitted the defendant’s confessional statement after the conclusion of the intratrial trial, which was conducted to prove that the witness statements were made voluntarily.
The five defendants are Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza (25 years old), Al Qassim Idris (20 years old), Jamiu Abdulmalik (26 years old), Abdulhaleem Idris (25 years old) and Momo Otuho Abubakar (47 years old).
On Wednesday, Omeiza opened his defense and was given evidence at an early hearing conducted by his lawyer Abdullahi Muhammad in the DSS case. Despite claiming to be an auxiliary nurse, Omeiza chose to give evidence in Ebira, prompting the court to request an interpreter.
Omeiza told a court presided over by Justice Emeka Nwaito that he was arrested on August 1, 2022, in the same house with two other boys, Hauwa and Yusuf.
“The night I was arrested, I woke up in the morning to read a book. When I woke up and was reading, I looked at the clock and it was 2:20 in the morning.
“When I woke up, I heard a noise. Then I dropped the book I was reading, and when I opened the window and looked in, I saw a group of people wearing black clothes with their faces covered. They forced the door open and came in,” the statement said.
“They were looking for my brother, Jamiu. There was a door near my room and there were little boys there who were too small. They arrested them,” he said, giving the boys’ names as Awal and Yusuf.
In a lengthy statement, the defendant told the court that it was at the DSS facility in Lokoja, the state capital, that he met the fifth defendant, Momo Otuho Abubakar, who was also arrested by secret police operatives.
At the DSS office in Lokoja, Omeiza explained that the four were kept in a room where information about their names, schools they attended, jobs and their father’s name was obtained and recorded.
The next day, the defendant gave a voluntary statement and stated that he was kept in custody until August 18, 2022, when he learned that his brother had also been arrested.
He further told the court that the DSS had not made any statement with him about the Owo Catholic Church attack or their membership in ISWAP or any other terrorist organization until August 18, 2022, when they were transferred to Ondo State.
Mr. Omeiza claimed that he was detained with his brother at the Ondo State DSS headquarters office in the same room where interrogators interrogated him about the attack on the Owo Catholic Church.
Further hearings have been rescheduled for March 6 as their defense continues.
