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Eight witnesses of the Department of State Services (DSS) in the ongoing trial of the suspects who attacked the St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State in 2022, on Wednesday corroborated the testimony of a seventh witness on Tuesday, who identified one of the suspects as being part of the perpetrators of the attack.
A seventh DSS witness testified on Tuesday, as well as on Tuesday, identifying the second defendant, Al-Qassim Idris, as one of the alleged killers of the worshipers.
An eyewitness, an Amotekun operative, told the Federal High Court in Abuja that he was one of the policemen who arrived at the church premises shortly after the attack. He identified Al-Qasim Idris as one of the men who engaged in a close-range gunfight in nearby bushes immediately after the attack.
DSS has charged 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) for the church attack on June 5, 2022.
Earlier on Tuesday, another Amotekun police officer listed as DSS’s seventh witness identified Al-Qassim Idris in open court as one of the people he confronted during the ensuing shootout.
On Wednesday, eight prosecution witnesses (PW8), SSH, guided by the evidence of the prosecution lawyer, Ayodeji Adedipe (SAN), revealed details of how they pursued and attempted to arrest the assailants, which resulted in a gunfight with Al Qasim Idris.
SSH said: “On June 5, 2022, as Amotekun operatives, we received a distress call from the anti-kidnapping squad. We were on anti-kidnapping mission when we received another call about an attack at St. Francis Church in Owo.
“We were then told to retreat and head towards St Francis Church. When we arrived at the church we were met by a crowd but managed to enter the grounds.
“When we entered the church grounds, we found several bodies on the floor inside and outside the church, some of them injured, including women and children,” he said.
The witness added: “We then went outside the church and learned that the attackers, numbering four, had sped off in a blue Nissan as we were arriving.
“We got in the car and started following them towards Utroad because that was the information we had. Our car was better than the car they were in, so we were able to get closer to them.”
“The attackers suddenly parked their car and drove into the bushes. One of our members and a volunteer hunter chased them while the rest of us waited strategically,” SSH said at one point.
Witnesses said they saw al-Qassim Idris during a fierce gunfight with assailants in the bush. However, the attackers succeeded in killing a volunteer hunter, it added.
“We were able to return to the bush to retrieve the hunter’s body,” the witness said.
The Amotekun police officer said he then took the Nissan vehicle to his office before moving it to the state headquarters.
During cross-examination by defense lawyer Abdullahi Mohammad, the witness said he could not remember how many people took Hunter’s body out of the bushes.
On whether efforts were made to identify the actual owner of the Nissan vehicle, the witness said, “Before moving the vehicle to the state headquarters in Akure, the owner came to our office and confirmed that he was the owner of the vehicle.”
When asked if the owner of the car had been questioned, the witness said it had been done at his office, but that he was not among the people who had questioned the owner of the car.
At the end of his cross-examination, Mr. Adedipe prayed the court to grant three consecutive days of adjournment for the prosecution to call its final set of witnesses and conclude the case.
As the defense did not object, Justice Emeka Nwite adjourned the case until March 24, 25 and 26 to continue the trial.
