A Nigerian court has sentenced four men to death for their role in the 2022 attack on a Catholic church in Ondo State that left dozens of worshippers dead and more than 100 others injured, bringing to a close one of the country's most closely watched terrorism cases.
The Federal High Court in Abuja found Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, Al Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik and Abdulhaleem Idris guilty of carrying out the assault on St Francis Catholic Church in Owo during a Pentecost service. The attack claimed the lives of 41 worshippers and left many others with serious injuries.
In addition to the death sentence, the four were each handed 20-year jail terms for belonging to a terrorist group.
Under Nigerian law, a death sentence cannot be carried out without presidential approval. The country has not conducted executions for several years.
Justice Emeka Nwite, who presided over the case, ruled that the prosecution had successfully proved its case against the accused persons.
The judge said the evidence presented before the court was "neither shaken nor contradicted during cross examination".
The trial began in August 2025, with the court ordering an accelerated hearing because of the public interest surrounding the case.
Delivering judgment, Justice Nwite said prosecutors had presented witnesses who directly linked the accused to the attack. Among them was a witness who told the court that two of the defendants were among the attackers.
"Hence this court finds the first to fourth defendants guilty of all nine counts," he added.
The court also heard testimony from survivors of the attack, including a woman who suffered life-changing injuries. She told the court that a dynamite explosion triggered by the attackers resulted in both her legs being amputated from the knees and caused the loss of her left eye.
The nine charges against the accused included membership in a terrorist organisation as well as planning and carrying out the killings.
Following the ruling, prosecutor Ayodeji Adedipe welcomed the outcome.
"Justice has been served, justice has been done to the deceased who were murdered in cold blood," he said.
Lawyers representing the convicted men said they would challenge the decision through an appeal.
During the proceedings, the four defendants alleged that they had been tortured while in custody. They claimed they were suspended from ceilings, beaten repeatedly and subjected to electric shocks on their genitals.
A fifth suspect, Momoh Otuho Abubakar, was acquitted after the court found there was insufficient evidence to support the charges against him.
Prosecutors had accused Abubakar of financing the church attack. They alleged that he received two payments of 800,000 naira each from another suspect who remains at large before distributing the money to the attackers.
However, while being cross-examined, Abubakar told the court that the funds in his account came from his farming activities and transactions linked to his cooperative society. He also denied that any of the four convicted men received money from him.
The Owo church massacre shocked Nigeria and drew widespread condemnation both within and outside the country.
Since then, several other churches have come under attack as Nigeria continues to face growing security challenges.
US President Donald Trump has accused Nigeria of failing to protect Christians from jihadist violence. On Christmas Day, the United States carried out strikes on two camps linked to a jihadist group in north-western Nigeria and warned that further action could follow if attacks persisted.
Claims that Christians are facing genocide in Nigeria have circulated in some right-wing circles in the United States. However, groups that track political violence in the country maintain that many victims of jihadist attacks are Muslims.
The Nigerian government has also repeatedly rejected claims that Christians are being systematically persecuted.