Three years after the horrific June 2022 attack at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, which claimed around 40 lives and injured over 100 worshippers, Nigeria’s security narrative has shifted. Initially, the Buhari administration attributed the atrocity to Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Back then, then-Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola told the press: “We have been able to see the footprint of ISWAP in the horrendous attack in Owo and we are after them. Our security agencies are on their trail, and we will bring them to justice.” This statement came at the end of a security meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
However, on Monday, the Department of State Services (DSS) arraigned five men before a Federal High Court in Abuja, accusing them of being members of the Somalia-based jihadist group Al-Shabab. The suspects—Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, Al Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik, Abdulhaleem Idris, and Momoh Otuho Abubakar—pleaded not guilty to a nine-count terrorism charge. Justice Emeka Nwite ordered them remanded in DSS custody, granting their lawyers access, with trial set to begin on August 19.
The shift from ISWAP to Al-Shabab raises serious questions about intelligence reliability and how the state investigates terrorist attacks. According to prosecutors, the men allegedly carried out the attack using IEDs and AK-47 rifles, holding worshippers hostage and causing grievous bodily harm to over 100 people, in addition to killing more than 40.
Al-Shabab, based in Somalia and linked to al-Qaeda, has a long history of insurgency in East Africa. The group controls rural territories, collects taxes, extorts locals, and has carried out deadly attacks on churches, hotels, government buildings, and crowded public spaces in Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda.
With the DSS now pointing to Al-Shabab, the focus of the case has shifted from conflicts in the Sahel and Lake Chad region to threats originating in East Africa, signaling a new chapter in the investigation of the Owo massacre.
