{"id":175041,"date":"2025-08-19T18:22:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T17:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/owo-church-attack-court-begins-trial-of-suspects"},"modified":"2025-08-19T19:24:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T18:24:42","slug":"owo-church-attack-court-begins-trial-of-suspects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/owo-church-attack-court-begins-trial-of-suspects","title":{"rendered":"Owo Church attack: Court begins trial of suspects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has begun the trial of five persons accused of being behind the bombing of a Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State.<\/p>\n

DAILY POST recalls that the Department of State Services, DSS, had on August 11, 2025, arraigned the five men before Justice Emeka Nwite over their alleged involvement in the June 5, 2022, attack at St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, in Ondo State.<\/p>\n

The five persons, Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, Al Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik, Abdulhaleem Idris, and Momoh Otuho Abubakar are to face trial for the attack, which claimed over 40 lives and left more than 100 individuals injured.<\/p>\n

The defendants are facing nine-count terrorism charges by the DSS, and they all pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

The suspects are accused, among other things, of being members of the Al Shabab terrorist group, with a cell in Kogi State.<\/p>\n

They are also alleged to have carried out the attack in furtherance of their religious ideology.<\/p>\n

They were alleged to have their \u201ccell in Kogi and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 25(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suspects were alleged to have held meetings at the Government Secondary School, Ogamirana, Adavi LGA in Kogi, and behind Omialafa Central Mosque, Ose LGA, Ondo, in 2022, where they planned the attack, which they carried out in June of the same year.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has begun the trial of five persons accused of being behind the bombing of a Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State. DAILY POST recalls that the Department of State Services, DSS, had on August 11, 2025, arraigned the five men before Justice Emeka Nwite over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":175040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[254,7656],"class_list":["post-175041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-nigeria","tag-owo-church-attack"],"yoast_head":"\nOwo Church attack: Court begins trial of suspects - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has begun the trial of five persons accused of being behind the bombing of a Catho ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/owo-church-attack-court-begins-trial-of-suspects\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Owo Church attack: Court begins trial of suspects\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has begun the trial of five persons accused of being behind the bombing of a Catho ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/owo-church-attack-court-begins-trial-of-suspects\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-19T17:22:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-19T18:24:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755615383.111951.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"864\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/owo-church-attack-court-begins-trial-of-suspects#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/owo-church-attack-court-begins-trial-of-suspects\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Owo Church attack: Court begins trial of suspects\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-19T17:22:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-19T18:24:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/owo-church-attack-court-begins-trial-of-suspects\"},\"wordCount\":243,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/owo-church-attack-court-begins-trial-of-suspects#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755615383.111951.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\",\"Owo church attack\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/owo-church-attack-court-begins-trial-of-suspects#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/owo-church-attack-court-begins-trial-of-suspects\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/owo-church-attack-court-begins-trial-of-suspects\",\"name\":\"Owo Church attack: Court begins trial of suspects - 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