DSS Witness Reveals: Suspected ISWAP Terrorists Paid and Mobilised for 2022 Owo Church Massacre
A senior Department of State Services (DSS) investigator on Tuesday told the Federal High Court in Abuja that the suspects accused in the June 5, 2022, terrorist attack on St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, were deliberately funded, armed, and mobilised by their handlers. Testifying as the 9th prosecution witness under a protective identity (coded as SSI), the deputy director in charge of terrorism investigations—who led the DSS probe into the incident—detailed how the attackers, linked to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), executed the assault that left at least 41 worshippers dead and over 140 injured during a Pentecost Sunday Mass. According to the witness, intelligence and technical tracking traced the perpetrators to an ISWAP cell operating across Okene and Adavi Local Government Areas in Kogi State, as well as Omielafa and Omielege in Ose LGA of Ondo State. The cell was coordinated by a commander known as "Odoba," who issued direct ord...