Owo Church Attack: DSS Witness Identifies Alleged Attacker as Prosecution Tenders Autopsy Report
A witness of the Department of State Services (DSS) on Tuesday identified one of the defendants standing trial over the June 5, 2022 attack on St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State, as one of the actual attackers.
Testifying before the Federal High Court in Abuja, the witness—identified as PW7 and codenamed “SSG”—told the court that he recognised the second defendant, Al Qasim Idris, during a close-range exchange of gunfire on the day of the attack.
SSG, who said he is an Assistant Commander with the Ondo State Security Network Agency (Amotekun), stated that he was deployed to the church shortly after receiving an alert from his state commander.
According to him, on arrival at the church premises, he encountered scenes of carnage, with corpses of men, women and children littered across the church hall and its surroundings.
“I saw about 35 corpses,” the witness said.
He told the court that eyewitness accounts indicated the attackers had fled in a blue Nissan Sunny vehicle heading toward the Achievers University axis along Ute Road.
SSG said he pursued the fleeing suspects with his team and that upon reaching Ijegunman Village, the occupants of the vehicle abandoned it and ran into the bush.
“They were four in number. They abandoned the vehicle by the roadside. I searched the vehicle and found packs of sachet water inside,” he said.
He identified the vehicle as a blue Nissan Sunny with registration number AKR 895 AG, adding that two of his men later drove it to the Amotekun office in Owo.
The witness further told the court that he and a hunter attached to his team pursued the suspects into the bush, where they later encountered them.
“They opened fire on us with AK-47 rifles. I responded with my pump-action rifle,” he said.
SSG said that during the exchange, three of the attackers escaped deeper into the bush, while one hid behind a tree and shot the hunter who was behind him, killing him on the spot.
He said he saw the shooter clearly at close range and could still identify him despite the incident occurring nearly four years ago.
Following an application by prosecuting counsel, Ayodeji Adedipe (SAN)—which was not opposed by defence counsel, Abdullahi Mohammad—the court permitted the witness to move closer to the dock to identify the suspect.
SSG stepped forward and pointed at the second defendant, Al Qasim Idris, as the man who shot and killed the hunter.
Under cross-examination, the witness again identified the same defendant, explaining that he could not arrest him at the time because the suspect was armed with an AK-47 rifle, which he said was more powerful than his own weapon.
The witness added that the defendant was later arrested through the collaborative efforts of security agencies in Ondo State.
Earlier, the sixth prosecution witness (PW6), codenamed “SSF,” a pathologist, tendered a certified true copy of the autopsy report on victims of the attack.
The report, admitted without objection, confirmed that the victims died from gunshot injuries, which caused extensive organ damage, skeletal injuries and massive bleeding.
“Generally, all the bodies bore marks of gunshot injuries fired from varying distances, leading to fatal internal damage and exsanguination,” the pathologist testified.
The DSS is prosecuting Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, Al Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik, Abdulhaleem Idris, and Momoh Otuho Abubakar over the attack.
This is the second time a prosecution witness has directly identified some of the defendants as participants in the attack.
