The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday admitted in evidence the confessional statements and gadgets of one of the five men being prosecuted by the Department of State Services (DSS) for the June 5, 2022 attack on the St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, in Ondo State.
The trial, which began on August 1, 2025, is one of the fastest prosecutions by a Nigerian security agency. The trial saw the DSS lining up 11 witnesses to testify against Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza (25 years), Al Qasim Idris (20 years), Jamiu Abdulmalik (26 years), Abdulhaleem Idris (25 years) and Momoh Otuho Abubakar (47 years).
The attack on the church claimed at least 40 lives, and left several others wounded.
Testifying as the prosecution’s 11th witness, a DSS’ operative, identified as SSK, told the court that, following the terrorist attack on June 5, 2022 the Director General of the DSS directed his team to trace, locate and apprehend the perpetrators.
Consequently, said the DSS officer, his team employed several forensic methods, including what he called “geospatial network filtering and cell tower triangulation.”
Led in evidence by the prosecuting lawyer, Ayodeji Adedipe, SAN, the DSS officer identified the digital forensic examination report his team produced, which the prosecuting lawyer tendered in evidence without any objection from the defence lawyer, Abdullahi Mohammad.
Also admitted in evidence was a black Tecno mobile phone the officer told the court their forensic analysis proved belonged to the first defendants, Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza.
“With several applications, we were able to filter thousands of mobile phones that had contact with the cell tower in Owaluwa, Elegbeka and Ifon,” said the operative.
“As a result of this, we narrowed it down to one of the defendants’ phone number. The defendant is identified as Idris Abdul Malik Omezia.
“The system revealed a unique identification number, the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) associated with the first defendant’s phone,
“This number is a unique digital fingerprint associated with every phone, meaning that no two phones have the same IMEI.
“This enabled us to trace, locate and arrest the first defendant. His arrest and confession led to the arrest of other defendants.
We furthered the analysis by carrying out what we called frequency of communication. Analysis revealed that the first defendant had bi-directional communication with two other defendants, namely Jamiu (third defendant) and Al-Qasim (second defendant).
“These three individuals exchanged several communication contacts before the incident and after the incident, that is, between 1st March 2022 and 30 July 2022, within the space of six months,” the witness said.
The witness, who said the phone was retrieved from the first defendant, told the court that after the first defendant’s arrest, the IMEI of the Tecno Phone marched the IMEI of the call data records.
When asked by Adedipe to give a summary of his team’s findings in relation to the defendants’ connection to the case, the witness said his team found that on the day of the incident, at about 7:23am, the first defendant’s “mobile phone was strangulated around 35 kilometres radius to the crime scene, that is, the church, a distance that can be covered within 30 to 40 minutes’ drive.
“Even though the first defendant applied no phone call rule, as a trained terrorist, his mobile phone was active. And, shortly after the attack, analysis revealed movement of the mobile phone towards Ifon.
“In addition, we also checked the pre-attack days, which are was on the 3rd and 4th of June 2022.
The first defendant’s mobile phone was within the radius of Elegbeka and Ifon exis.
“There is what is called silent witness. The movement of the phone from one cell tower to another gave us an insight into the movement of the first defendant on pre-attack days and the day of attack.
“The frequency of communication further revealed a relationship analysis amongst the defendants.
“Three of the defendants made several calls before and after the attack, which showed that they know one another and that their arrest is not by accident,” the witness said.
Under cross examination by Muhammad, the witness said it took his team over a month to locate and arrest the first defendant.
He said he could not recall the actual dates that the defendants were arrested, but that all the defendants were traced, located and arrested in the month of August 2022 at different locations within Kogi and Ondo states.
When asked to specify where the
first defendant was arrested, the witness said he was apprehended
in Eika in Kogi State.
On why he did not bring the mobile phones of the other defendants to court, the witness said he brought only the black Tecno mobile phone because of its relevance to his team’s investigation.
Earlier, under cross examination, the 10th prosecution witness, identified as SSJ, insisted that he asked each of the first to fourth defendants if they could write the statements by themselves and they informed him individually that they cannot write well in English.
On whether he wrote the statements collectively or individually, the same day or separate days, the witness said he took the statements of the first to fourth defendants individually on the same day.l, which was August 18, 2022.
On how many hours it took him to take the statements, the witness said it took an average of 10 hours.
On whether the statements taken on August 18, 2022 were the only statements taken at the DSS headquarters, the witness said they were the only statements taken by him as an the investigator in the case.
At the end of the 11th prosecution witness’ testimony, Adedipe announced the closure of the prosecution’s case.
When asked by trial judge, Justice Emeka Nwite, how many witnesses he planned to call, defence lawyer said he would call only the defendants as witnesses in the defence’s case.
Muhammad said for him to be fully prepared for defence, he needed to be availed with a copy of the fifth defendant’s statement, which was tendered during Thursday’s proceedings, and be allowed access to the defendants, who are currently being held in DSS’ custody.
With the intervention of the judge, Adedipe promised to ensure that Muhammad was granted easy access to his clients for consultations before they open their defence.
Justice Nwite adjourned till March 4 and 5 for the defence to open its case.
