SSS agent tells court how Owo church massacre suspect was tracked through his phone

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The Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday heard more details of how a suspect linked to the June 2022 massacre at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State, was found through phone tracking.

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The 11th prosecution witness, codenamed SSK to shield his identity, testified as the last prosecution witness in the case.

The defence is now expected to open its case at the next proceedings in March.

SSK, a senior agent and digital forensic lead at the State Security Service (SSS), narrated to the court how he and his team applied geospatial network filtering and cell tower triangulation, narrowing searches down to one of the defendants, which led to other defendants. SSK said he has spent 29 years working at the secret police organisation.

Earlier on Wednesday, the 10th prosecution witness, SSJ, who was also an SSS agent, detailed how four of the suspects were tracked down through phone call analysis.

Trial judge Emeka Nwite also admitted the extrajudicial statement of the fifth defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar, 47, as exhibit. The statement made dated 9 November 2022 was marked Exhibit S. He admitted it alongside a Techno mobile phone allegedly traced to the first defendant.

This followed the prosecution’s application to have the materials admitted. There was no objection from the defence.

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The rest of the defendants whose statements had been admitted in evidence by the court earlier on Wednesday are Idris Omeiza, 25; Al Qasim Idris, 20; Jamiu Abdulmalik, 26; and Abdulhaleem Idris, 25.

They are being prosecuted by the SSS on terrorism charges over the attack that left about 40 worshippers of the church in Owo dead and many injured.

How mobile devices were filtered to track the suspects

Led in evidence by the prosecution lawyer, Ayodeji Adedipe, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), SSK told the court he holds master’s degrees in forensic science and information technology. He said he specialises in converting raw data into “forensic actionable intelligence that meets international standards for judicial admissibility.”

He testified that following the June 2022 attack, the SSS Director General directed his team to trace, locate and apprehend the perpetrators.

According to him, thousands of mobile devices that connected to cell towers around Owo, Elegbeka and Ifon were filtered. “We narrowed it down to one of the defendants’ phone numbers identified as Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza,” he said.

He explained that the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, a unique digital fingerprint for each phone, enabled the team to trace and arrest the first defendant.

“No two phones have the same IMEI,” he said. “This enabled us to trace, locate and arrest the first defendant.”

SSK added that further frequency of communication analysis revealed bidirectional calls between three of the defendants between 1 March and 30 July 2022, both before and after the attack.

The prosecution immediately tendered the digital forensic examination report, which the court admitted as Exhibit T.

A black Techno mobile phone said to belong to the first defendant was also tendered without objection and admitted as Exhibit U.

Continuing, SSK told the court that on 5 June 2022 at about 7:23 a.m., the first defendant Omeiza’s phone was triangulated within a 35 kilometre radius of the church, a distance he said could be covered in 30 to 40 minutes by car.

He explained that although the first defendant applied a no phone call rule as a trained terrorist, his mobile phone was active. He described the phone’s movement across cell towers as a “silent witness” revealing pre-attack and post-attack movements.

Defence grills SSK

Under cross-examination, defence lawyer A.A. Mohammed questioned the witness’ qualifications and asked to see his certificates.

“My appointment is gazetted,” the witness replied, adding that most of his training was sponsored by the service and that he works with a covert organisation.

He declined to state the exact date he was directed to begin forensic work, citing operational secrecy, but said investigations commenced immediately after the 5 June 2022 attack.

He also said the first defendant was arrested in Eika, Kogi State, and that all the defendants were arrested in August in different locations across Kogi and Ondo states.

When asked why only one phone was brought to court, he said, “I brought only one phone because of its relevance…”

SSJ faces questioning too

Earlier in the proceedings, the defence lawyer cross-examined another SSS investigator, SSJ, who earlier testified on Wednesday on how the statements of fourof the defendants were obtained and how phone call analysis led to their arrest

Fielding questions from the defence, the witness confirmed that although he did not personally record the fifth defendant’s statement, the defendant made a statement to the service which was recorded by another investigator.

The prosecution applied to tender the original statement dated 9 November 2022. There was no objection from the defence.

SSJ maintained that he recorded the statements of the first to the fourth defendants individually on 18 August 2022.

“They informed me individually that they cannot write perfectly well in English language,” he said, adding that he asked each of them whether they could write their statements themselves before proceeding.

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The witness told the court that the exercise took an average of 10 hours, with each defendant interviewed separately on the same day.

After the 11th prosecution witness finished his testimony, the prosecution team announced it was closing its case.

Mr Muhammad then applied for the provision of an interpreter in Ebira language for the five defendants, who are from Kogi State.

Judge Nwite adjourned the matter until 4 and 5 March for the defence to open its case