The first defendant in the trial of the alleged attackers of St Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, in which 41 people were killed and 140 others injured, told a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja how he was manhandled by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) while in their custody.
The defendant, Abdulmalik Idris Omeiza, said he was arrested at about 2:26 a.m. on 1 August 2022 by DSS operatives at his house in Okehi LGA of Kogi State and taken to the Lokoja office of the secret police, where he alleged that he was hanged with chains on his legs and his eyes were covered.
According to the witness, the DSS operatives insisted that he must speak the truth. He told them that he had nothing to say, and when they discovered that he was weak, they brought him down from where he was hanged and poured water on him after beating him.
Having spent some days in DSS custody in Lokoja, he said he was moved to the DSS office in Akure, Ondo State, along with his elder brother, who is the third defendant in the matter, alleging that he was beaten with wire on his bare body while stripped naked, leaving him only in boxers.
“After the beating, they dropped me from where I was hanged, poured water on me and started using electric light to shock me.
‘If you want your family members to know that you are in DSS custody in Ondo State, accept that you are involved in the Owo church attack. If we beat you to death, it doesn’t concern us because we are next to God in this community’,” the witness said the DSS operatives told him at their office in Akure, Ondo State.
After the evidence of the first defendant, the court adjourned the trial to Friday, 6 March 2026.
The DSS, prosecuting the defendants on behalf of the Federal Government, closed their case after calling nine witnesses.
The DSS operatives arrested Abdulmalik Omeiza, Al Quasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik, Abdulhaleem Idris and Momoh Otuho Abubakar in August 2022 in Kogi and Ondo States in connection with the Owo Catholic Church terror attack.