Our efforts to arrest terrorists behind Owo church attack, by DSS witness
A witness in the ongoing trial of the suspected attackers of the St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, has given details of efforts to apprehend those behind the
A witness in the ongoing trial of the suspected attackers of the St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, has given details of efforts to apprehend those behind the June 5, 2022, attack.
The witness, identified as SSH, yesterday told a Federal High Court in Abuja that he was one of the Amotekun officials who were asked to go to the scene of the attack.
The Department of State Services (DSS) is prosecuting Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza (25 years), Al Qasim Idris (20), Jamiu Abdulmalik (26), Abdulhaleem Idris (25 years) and Momoh Otuho Abubakar (47) over the attack on the church, which ld to the death of many worshippers and injuries to several others.
Led in evidence by the prosecuting lawyer, Ayodeji Adedipe (SAN), SSH, who is the eighth prosecution witness (PW8) said he was one of the officials of the Ondo State Security Network (Amotekun) who were deployed to the attack scene.
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 a call that there was an attack at the St. Francis Church, Owo.
“So, we were asked to withdraw and go to St. Francis Church. On getting to the church, we met a crowd and managed to enter the premises.
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“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.”
The witness added: “We later came outside the church to gather information, and learnt that the attackers were four in number and that they left the church in a blue Nissan car.
“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 more efficient than the one they were driving.”
SSH said at a point, the attackers “suddenly parked their car and ran into the bush.
“One of our men and a volunteer went after them while the rest of us waited strategically,” he ssaid.
The witness said they later heard gunshots, adding: “After a while of gunshots, our colleague came out of the bush and informed us that the hunter had been killed.
“We were able to get back to the buah to take the body of the hunter,” the witness said.
SSH added that he and his team members later took the Nissan car to their office before it was moved to the state headquarters of Amotekun.
Under cross-examination by the defence lawyer, Abdullahi Mohammad, the witness said he could not remember how many of them brought out the hunter’s body from the bush.
Asked if they made efforts to identify the 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, SSH said that was in their office, but that he was not among those who interviewed the owner of the car.
At the conclusion of the cross-examination, Adedipe prayed the court to grant an adjournment to three consecutive days to enable the prosecution call its last set of witnesses and close its case.
The defence lawyer did not oppose the request.
Justice Emeka Nwite adjourned till March 24, 25, and 26 for continuation of the trial.
