An eight witness of the Department of State Services (DSS) in the ongoing trial of suspected attackers of the St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, in 2022, on Wednesday corroborated the Tuesday testimony of a 7th witness who identified one of the suspects as being part of those who carried out the attack.
Like the 7th DSS witness did on Tuesday, the 8th also identified the 2nd defendant, Al Quasim Idris, as being part of those who allegedly killed the worshippers.
The witness, an Amotekun operative, told a Federal High Court in Abuja that he was one of the officers who arrived in the church premises shortly after the attack. He identified Al Quasim Idris as one of those who, shortly after the attack, exchanged gunfire at close range with him in a nearby bush.
The DSS is prosecuting Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza (25 years), Al Qasim Idris (20 years), Jamiu Abdulmalik (26 years), Abdulhaleem Idris (25 years) and Momoh Otuho Abubakar (47 years) over the June 5, 2022 attack on the church.
Earlier on Tuesday, another Amotekun officer, who is listed as the seventh witness of the DSS, in open court, identified Al Quasim Idris as one of those with whom he came face-to-face during a gunfight that ensued.
Led in evidence by the prosecuting lawyer, Ayodeji Adedipe (SAN), SSH, who is the eight prosecution witness (PW8), on Wednesday, gave details of how they trailed and tried to apprehend the attackers, resulting in the exchange of gunfire with Al Quasim Idris.
SSH said: “On June 5, 2022 as an operative of Amotekun, we received a distress call from the anti-kidnapping squad. We were on an anti-kidnapping mission when we received another call that there was an attack at the St. Francis Church, Owo.
“So, we were asked to withdraw and head to St Francis Church. On getting to the church, we met a crowd and managed to enter the premises.
“When we entered the church premises, we saw several dead bodies on the floor, both inside and around the church, including some injured people, including women and children,” he said.
The witness added: “We later came outside the church and learnt that the attackers were four in number and that they were the ones who zoomed off in a blue Nissan car as we were arriving.
“We got into our vehicle and started to trail them towards Ute Road, because that was the information we got. We were able to get close to them because our vehicle was better than the one they were in.”
SSH said at a point, “the attackers abruptly parked their car and ran into the bush. One of our men and a volunteer hunter went after them while the rest of us waited strategically.”
The witness said that it was during an intense gun battle with the attackers in the bush that he sighted Al Quasim Idris. He, however, added that the assailants succeeded in killing the volunteer hunter.
“We were able to get back to the bush to retrieve the body of the hunter,” the witness stated.
The Amotekun officer stated that they later took the Nissan car to their office before it was later moved to their state headquarters.
Under cross-examination by defence lawyer, Abdullahi Mohammad, the witness said he could not remember how many of them brought out the hunter’s corpse from the bush.
On whether they made efforts to identify the actual owner of the Nissan car, the witness said: “Before we moved the vehicle to the state headquarters at Akure, the owner came to our office to identify himself as the owner of the vehicle.”
When asked if they interviewed the owner of the vehicle, the witness said that was done in their office, but that he was not part of those who interviewed the owner of the car..
At the conclusion of the cross-examination, Adedipe prayed the court to grant a three consecutive day adjournment to enable the prosecution call its last set of witnesses and close its case.
The defence lawyer did not oppose, following which Justice Emeka Nwite adjourned till March 24, 25 and 26 for continuation of trial.
