Federal High Court in Abuja has reserved judgment in the trial of five suspects accused of involvement in the June 5, 2022 attack on St. Francis Catholic Church.
Gatekeepers News reports that Justice Emeka Nwite announced on Tuesday that a date for judgment would be communicated to both parties after counsel for the prosecution and defence adopted their final written addresses.
Counsel to the Department of State Services (DSS), Ayodeji Adedipe, urged the court to convict the defendants and impose the maximum sentence of death, citing the gravity of the alleged offence.
Adedipe argued that the scale of the attack and the number of casualties warranted the harshest punishment under the law.
However, defence counsel, Abdullahi Mohammad, asked the court to discharge and acquit the defendants, insisting that the prosecution failed to establish its case beyond reasonable doubt.
The five suspects standing trial are Jamiu Abdulmalik, Abdulmalik Omeiza, Al-Qasim Idris, Abdulhaleem Idris, and Momoh Otuho Abubakar.
The defendants were arrested over their alleged roles in the deadly attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, which claimed the lives of 41 worshippers and left more than 140 others injured.
During the trial, the DSS presented 11 witnesses in an effort to establish the allegations against the accused persons.
The prosecution also tendered several exhibits, including confessional statements and a digital forensic examination report.
Among the exhibits admitted in evidence was a mobile phone allegedly containing communications exchanged by the defendants before and after the attack.
Justice Nwite subsequently reserved judgment after hearing submissions from both sides.
