Survivors of the June 5, 2022 attack on St Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State, on Wednesday gave detailed accounts before a Federal High Court in Abuja of how the assault unfolded, describing scenes of gunfire, explosives and loss of life.

The witnesses testified in the ongoing trial of five men accused of carrying out the attack, which left at least 41 worshippers dead. The defendants are Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza (25), Al Qasim Idris (20), Jamiu Abdulmalik (26), Abdulhaleem Idris (25) and Momoh Otuho Abubakar (47). They are being prosecuted by the Department of State Services (DSS).
A couple, identified in court as “SSE” and “SSD”, testified as the fifth and fourth prosecution witnesses, respectively. SSE told the court that after the attack, he had to wade through corpses in search of his missing son. His wife, SSD, said she lost both legs and her left eye as a result of injuries sustained during the attack.
Led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Ayodeji Adedipe (SAN), SSE said he attended the church service with his mother, wife and three children on the day of the incident.
“The congregation gathered in the church, in which I and my family were not left out. After the mass, the priest now gave the final blessing for everyone to go. It was then that we heard the first gun shot outside the church,” he said.

He explained that worshippers initially thought the sound was a firecracker used to mark Pentecost, until the shooting continued and drew closer to the church.
“The MOD (Men of Discipline), who happened to be one of the church’s wardens, shouted that everyone should lie down. He ran to the entrance door and closed it,” SSE said.
According to him, the attackers shot through the windows and at those attempting to escape. When the warder could no longer hold the entrance, the assailants forced their way into the church.
“They were first shooting those that wanted to run out of the church. But, noticing that those who wanted to move out of the small door at the same time were many, an explosive device was thrown to the place where people gathered behind the exit door, where I laid down,” he said.

He told the court that the device exploded repeatedly, filling the church with dust and smoke.
“For long, no human being talked. When the device ceased, we thought they have gone. A woman stood up to see, and she was shot. And then, I buried myself back under the church pew,” he said.
SSE further recounted seeing one of the attackers approach the altar and throw another explosive before fleeing.
“For almost two to three minutes, the device was exploding, destroying both human beings and church structures,” he said.
When the attackers eventually left, SSE said he stepped outside and began searching for his family.
“My lord, you can imagine the feeling when I had to be searching and turning the corpses of young people on the floor to see if any of them was my son,” he said.

He said he later realised that a badly injured woman he had earlier pitied inside the church was his wife.
“At the hospital, I signed for my wife to be amputated and her two legs were amputated. And we discovered later that one of the eyes was ruptured. As at today, she lives with no legs and one eye,” he told the court.
SSE added that the Ondo State Government had promised to provide prosthetic legs for his wife but said the effort stalled after the administration of the late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu left office.

He said appeals to the current Commissioner for Health had not yielded results.
Under cross-examination, he said the attackers used both guns and dynamite, adding that he saw three attackers inside the church and one outside shooting through the window, though he could not clearly see their faces.
Earlier, SSD, a nurse with the Ondo State Hospital Management Board, gave her own account of the incident. She said she ran towards the altar to lie down when the shooting started.
“I was there praying in my heart that God should save my family because I did not know the direction they ran to,” she said.
She said she later heard what she believed was the sound of a dynamite explosion.

“Then, I don’t know what followed until everywhere became calm and I realised that I was still alive,” she said.
SSD told the court that when she regained consciousness, she realised her legs had been shattered and her eye badly damaged.
“I touched my leg, I could not feel anything, only what felt like rags and the dangling shattered part of my legs,” she said.
She said she lost her left eye and both legs, which were amputated above the knees, and spent more than five months in hospital before being discharged. She now uses a wheelchair and an eye prosthesis.
With the court’s permission, the witness was wheeled to the centre of the courtroom to show the judge her amputated legs and damaged eye.

Under cross-examination, SSD said she could not determine the exact cause of her eye injury but believed it was linked to the dynamite blast that destroyed the roof at the altar.
She said she later learnt that 41 people died in the attack from information shared during the mass burial of victims.
Justice Emeka Nwite adjourned further hearing in the case until February 10 and 11.