Five Nigerian men appeared before a federal high court in Abuja on Monday, accused of carrying out a deadly assault on a Catholic church in the southwestern state of Ondo that left at least 50 worshippers dead and more than 100 injured during Sunday Mass in June 2022.
The defendants — Idris Omiza, Al-Qasim Idris, Jamil Abdul Malik, Abdul-Haleem Idris, and Momoh Otoho Abubakar — were charged under Nigeria’s Terrorism Prevention Act. Authorities allege they were part of an Islamist militant cell involved in planning and executing the massacre at St. Francis Catholic Church in the city of Owo.
All five pleaded not guilty. The court ordered that they be remanded in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria’s domestic intelligence agency.
Presiding Judge Emeka Nwite adjourned the trial to August 19, in a case seen as a test of the Nigerian government’s ability to deliver justice in high-profile terrorism cases amid an ongoing wave of armed attacks and widespread insecurity.
According to court documents, the suspects allegedly joined Somalia-based militant group al-Shabaab in 2021 and conspired to carry out multiple attacks, including one on a public school in central Nigeria and another near a mosque about 30 kilometers from St. Francis Catholic Church.
Al-Shabaab has not claimed responsibility for the June 2022 attack, and its operational presence in Nigeria remains uncertain. Initially, authorities blamed the assault on the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) — an IS affiliate waging a long-running insurgency alongside Boko Haram in the country’s northeast — but ISWAP also denied involvement.
The Owo massacre shocked Nigeria and drew international condemnation, highlighting the country’s deepening security crisis, in which rural communities, religious centers, and public gatherings remain vulnerable to both jihadist and criminal violence.
