“I Saw Him Shoot”: Secret Witness Identifies Owo Church Attackers as DSS and Military Seal Case in Abuja
ABUJA — The ghosts of June 5, 2022, returned to the Federal High Court in Abuja this week.
In a dramatic turn of events at the resumed trial of the St. Francis Catholic Church massacre suspects, a witness presented by the Department of State Services (DSS) has positively identified two of the defendants as the gunmen who pulled the trigger.
The testimony, heard on Wednesday, February 11, 2026, marks a major breakthrough for the joint security investigation—involving the DSS, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), and the Military—that first cracked the case three years ago.
Justice Nwite has adjourned the case for further hearing, ordering the suspects to remain in DSS custody. For the families of the 40 victims, the identification of the shooters brings a painful but necessary closure closer. The mask is finally off the faces of the men who turned a Pentecost Sunday into a bloodbath.
The Courtroom Identification
The witness, an operative of the Ondo State Security Network (Amotekun) identified only by the codename “S-S-H”, testified before Justice Emeka Nwite. Speaking from a shielded witness box, the operative pointed to Al-Qasim Idris (the second defendant) and Abdulhaleem Idris (the fourth defendant). “I engaged them,” the witness told the silent courtroom. He described a close-range exchange of gunfire with the terrorists during the attack that left over 40 worshippers dead. A second witness, a survivor who was inside the church during the massacre, also identified Al-Qasim Idris as one of the shooters who fired into the congregation.
The Intelligence Syndicate: How They Were Caught
The ongoing trial highlights the rare but effective success of Nigeria’s “Intelligence Syndicate”—a collaboration between the Military, DSS, and NIA. It was the Defence Headquarters, under then-Chief of Defence Staff General Lucky Irabor, that first announced the arrests in August 2022. The military conducted the physical raids on the terrorists’ hideouts in Kogi and Ondo states. While the military pulled the trigger on the raids, sources confirm it was the DSS and NIA that provided the “geo-location intelligence.” They tracked the suspects’ phone calls and movement patterns from the scene in Owo to their cells in Kogi State, linking them to an ISWAP breakaway faction and the Al-Shabaab terror group.
The “Al-Shabaab” Connection
The prosecution has unveiled a shocking detail: the suspects are not just local bandits. The five defendants—Idris Omeiza, Al-Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdul Malik, Abdulhaleem Idris, and Momoh Abubakar—are facing charges of being members of Al-Shabaab, a terror group traditionally based in East Africa. The DSS accuses them of operating a terror cell in Kogi State that coordinated the Owo attack to “send a message” to the South West.
“Justice is Coming”
Justice Nwite has adjourned the case for further hearing, ordering the suspects to remain in DSS custody. For the families of the 40 victims, the identification of the shooters brings a painful but necessary closure closer. The mask is finally off the faces of the men who turned a Pentecost Sunday into a bloodbath.