The Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced four members of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group to death by hanging over their involvement in the June 5, 2022, attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State.

The attack, which occurred during a Pentecost service, left more than 40 worshippers dead and over 100 others injured.

Justice Emeka Nwite delivered the judgment on Wednesday after convicting Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, Al Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik, and Abdulhaleem Idris on a nine-count terrorism charge filed by the Department of State Services on behalf of the Federal Government.

The court, however, discharged and acquitted a fifth defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar, after ruling that there was insufficient evidence linking him to the attack.

According to the court, the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the four convicted men were active members of an Al-Shabaab terrorist cell operating in Kogi State and directly participated in the deadly church attack.

The prosecution alleged that the attackers stormed the church armed with AK-47 rifles and improvised explosive devices, holding worshippers hostage and carrying out the attack in furtherance of their extremist ideology.

During the trial, the prosecution presented 11 witnesses and tendered 23 exhibits, including confessional statements and a digital forensic report.

Among the evidence admitted by the court was a mobile device said to contain communications exchanged by the defendants before and after the attack.

One of the prosecution witnesses, a Catholic priest who survived the incident, narrated how the attackers detonated explosive devices inside the church, causing panic and mass casualties among worshippers.

Justice Nwite held that the evidence presented by the prosecution clearly connected the four convicts to the attack and justified their conviction on terrorism charges.

The court subsequently sentenced the four defendants to death by hanging.