DSS witness details how the Owo church massacre was planned, funded

The chilling details of the June 5, 2022, attack on St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, were laid bare in a Federal High Court in Abuja this Tuesday. A protected witness from the Department of State Services (DSS), identified only as SSI, provided a haunting account of how a cell of the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) was financed, armed, and meticulously trained to carry out a massacre that left over 40 people dead and hundreds scarred.

According to the testimony, the terror cell wasn’t just a group of rogue actors—it was a coordinated unit with a dedicated financial pipeline. The witness highlighted the role of the 5th defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar, whom he claimed acted as the group’s “banker” through multiple Point of Sale (POS) locations.

“Investigation revealed that the 5th defendant worked in tandem with the 1st to 4th defendants,” the witness testified. “He was operating a Point of Sales (POS) units in five deferent locations. About two to three weeks prior to the attack, his account was credited at two different instances with N800, 000. He used the POS machine to distribute the money to the individuals, who aree members of the Al-Shabab Unit of ISWAP, and the defendants were beneficiaries of this money, with no evidence of business transactions between them.”

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The planning reportedly began on May 30, 2022, at a meeting in a Kogi State secondary school presided over by a coordinator known as Odoba. SSI noted that “Odoba usually hibernate around Ogaminana in Adavi LGA of Kogi State,” and it was here that the order was given to strike the church on a Sunday, with the specific intent to “ensure that they kill the priest.”

Following this directive, the group moved to the residence of the Idris brothers’ father, who serves as a Chief Imam, to finalize their plans. The logistics were as cold as they were calculated:

– June 4, 2022: A Volkswagen Golf 3 was hired.
– The Arsenal: Odoba supplied the team with five AK-47 rifles, 10 magazines, ample ammunition, and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
– “Dry Practice”: The defendants engaged in a rehearsal without live rounds to reorient themselves on weapon safety and handling.

The witness’s account of the Sunday morning attack was particularly visceral. He described how the attackers blended into the environment before unleashing chaos. Two of the men even sat by a woman roasting corn outside the church to avoid suspicion.

“They met Abdullahi and Mohammed. They got to the church, removed the sacks and pulled out their weapons. Two of them sat with a woman roasting corn. They bought some corns. A young man hawking stuff was observing them. One of them (the attackers) went and whispered to the hawker. When he was about leaving after being whispered to, he was shot dead instantly,” the witness stated.

This initial shot signaled the start of the slaughter. The attackers snatched a car to breach the church premises, where the horror intensified:

“They shot sporadically in the church’s sanctuary, outside and all over, including worshippers trying to escape. Abdulhaleem, who had the bag containing IEDs, detonated at least three explosives. Other attackers engaged the worshippers with gunshots. 40 people, including women and children, died at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC). 23 were wounded and rushed to the hospital.”

The DSS spent weeks unraveling the cell’s movements across Kogi and Ondo states. The witness explained that his team was mandated to find the perpetrators and their sponsors. “With that, we proceeded to gather intelligence and also exploited technical resources, which eventually led us to the arrest of five persons in the month of August 2022,” he said.

The court admitted 30 photographs of the scene and a comprehensive investigation report as evidence. While the defense requested more time to study these documents, the prosecution emphasized the weight of the technical evidence linking the defendants to the communication and funding trails of the attack.

Justice Emeka Nwite has adjourned the trial to February 18, 2026, for further cross-examination.

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