Nigeria arraigns five accused in 2022 Catholic church massacre in Abuja court

 

Nigerian prosecutors have arraigned five men accused of carrying out the deadly 2022 attack on St Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, where at least 50 worshippers were killed and over 100 others were wounded. The suspects, identified as Idris Omeiza, Al Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik, Abdulhaleem Idris, and Momoh Otuho Abubakar, appeared before a federal high court in Abuja. They were charged under Nigeria’s terrorism laws and pleaded not guilty. The judge, Emeka Nwite, ordered them to be held in the custody of the Department of State Services pending trial.

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The prosecution alleges that the men joined the East African militant group Al Shabaab in 2021 and planned multiple attacks, including one at a public school in central Nigeria and another near a mosque close to Owo. Despite the claims, Al Shabaab has not taken responsibility for the church attack, and its presence in Nigeria remains unconfirmed.

Authorities initially blamed the 2022 Owo church massacre on the Islamic State West Africa Province, a group linked to Boko Haram, which has been waging an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria for over a decade. However, ISWAP did not claim responsibility, leaving uncertainty over who orchestrated the violence. The incident shocked the nation, drawing condemnation from both local and international communities, and highlighting the growing reach of militant violence beyond Nigeria’s conflict-prone northeast.

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The trial, scheduled to start on August 19, is seen as a major test of the Nigerian government’s capacity to successfully prosecute high-profile terrorism cases. Nigeria has faced challenges in bringing militant suspects to justice due to complex investigations, security risks, and judicial delays. Families of the victims, Catholic Church leaders, and human rights advocates are closely watching the case, hoping it will provide justice and closure. The Owo attack remains one of the deadliest assaults on a place of worship in Nigeria’s history, underscoring the country’s struggle with insecurity that spans insurgencies, banditry, and communal violence.