An officer of the Department of State Services (DSS) has told Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja, that forensic analysis of mobile phones belonging to four men accused of carrying out the June 5, 2022 attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State, placed them at the scene of the crime.

The officer, identified by the code name S.S.J., testified that phone calls made by the defendants around the time of the attack located them in the vicinity of the church.

He said the DSS obtained sufficient technical evidence showing that the first to fourth defendants were around the church premises during the attack, adding that telecommunications cell site data placed their phones and conversations near the location at the material time.

According to the witness, aside from the phone record analysis conducted by the DSS, the defendants voluntarily made confessional statements linking themselves to the attack.

He told the court that the statement-taking session was witnessed by the Director of the Legal Aid Council after the defendants said they could not afford to have their lawyers or family members present.

The witness identified the five defendants and detailed how he obtained confessional statements from the first to fourth defendants, which he said were made voluntarily.

An objection by defence counsel, Abdullahi Mohammad, to the admissibility of the statements was overruled by Justice Nwite.

In a ruling, Nwite also rejected Mohammad’s request for a trial-within-trial to determine whether the defendants made the statements.

The judge upheld the submission of prosecuting counsel, Ayodeji Adedipe (SAN), that a trial-within-trial is only warranted where the issue concerns the voluntariness of a statement, not where a defendant denies making it.

After the 10th prosecution witness testified on how he obtained the statements, Adedipe applied to tender them in evidence. Mohammad objected, arguing that the statements were not made by his clients and urging the court to order a trial-within-trial.

Earlier, under cross-examination by Mohammad, the ninth prosecution witness, S.S.I., maintained that the defendants were involved in the attack and gave details of the DSS investigation.

S.S.I., who said he led the investigation team, told the court that the defendants were arrested in August 2022 in Kogi and Ondo States and later interviewed in Abuja.

He confirmed that all the defendants are members of ISWAP and belong to a cell operating as Al Shabab. He added that there is also a Mahmuda group of ISWAP in the area.

The witness stated that after the attack, the fourth defendant returned the weapons used to Odoba and also returned the rented vehicle used in the operation.

He confirmed that the case was thoroughly investigated and that incriminating evidence was duly obtained.

According to him, the defendants used two vehicles during the attack. They drove to the church in a rented vehicle and later snatched another vehicle from a worshipper returning from service, which they used as a getaway car.

He further told the court that the defendants held a meeting at Government Secondary School, Ogaminana, where one Odoba instructed the second defendant to carry out the attack. That meeting, he said, preceded two other meetings held on June 3 and 4, 2022.

S.S.I. confirmed that the defendants used explosives and several rounds of ammunition during the attack and insisted that no other persons outside the defendants were arrested by the DSS in connection with the case.

Further hearing has been adjourned to Thursday, February 19.