The courtroom fell silent as one of the men accused of orchestrating the brutal June 5, 2022 massacre at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo began to speak.
Forty-one worshippers were slaughtered that Sunday. More than 140 others staggered away wounded. The horror of that day still hangs heavily over Ondo State.
Now, three years later, the trial has intensified.
One of the five accused men, 25-year-old Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, took the stand in his own defense before the Federal High Court in Abuja. The Department of State Services (DSS) has lined up 11 witnesses in a high-stakes prosecution that began in August 2025.
Confessional statements from the defendants have already been admitted after a separate hearing to determine whether they were made voluntarily.
But on Wednesday, it was Omeiza’s turn to speak.
Claiming he worked as an auxiliary nurse, Omeiza chose to deliver his testimony in Ebira, forcing the court to pause proceedings and summon an interpreter. Then he began to recount the night, he said, his world shattered.
“It was 2:20 in the morning,” he told the court. “I had woken up early to read.”
Outside, something stirred.
“I heard noises,” he said. “I dropped my book and went to the window.”
Through the darkness, he claimed, he saw shadowy figures dressed in black, their faces concealed. Moments later, he said, they forced their way inside.
According to Omeiza, the men demanded to know the whereabouts of his elder brother, Jamiu – another defendant in the case.
“They arrested the small boys near my room,” he said, naming two young men he identified as Awal and Yusuf. “Then they took me.”
He told the court he was transported to the DSS facility in Lokoja, where, he claimed, he later encountered another co-defendant, 47-year-old Momoh Otuho Abubakar.
Inside the facility, Omeiza said, they were placed together in a room and questioned – their names, their schools, their family details carefully recorded.
He insisted that at that stage, no one mentioned the Owo church attack. No one, he claimed, accused him of belonging to ISWAP or any terrorist organization.
“The next day, I gave my statement,” he said, adding that he remained in detention until August 18, 2022, when he learned that his elder brother had also been arrested.
Only after they were transferred to the DSS headquarters in Ondo State, Omeiza claimed, did interrogators begin questioning them about the bloodbath at St. Francis Catholic Church.
Side by side in detention, he said, he and his brother faced probing questions about one of the deadliest church attacks in Nigeria’s recent history.
The tension in the courtroom was palpable as he concluded his testimony.
The trial is far from over. Proceedings resume March 6, when the defense will continue its case in a matter that has gripped the nation — and reopened the wounds of a tragedy that refuses to fade.
