A Nigerian federal court has sentenced four men to death for the 2022 Pentecost Sunday massacre at a Catholic church in southern Nigeria that killed 41 worshipers and injured more than 100 others.

Judge Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja found Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, 25; Al Qasim Idris, 20; Jamiu Abdulmalik, 26; and Abdulhaleem Idris, 25, guilty on all nine counts, including joining a terrorist organization, conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, kidnapping, hostage-taking, terrorism financing, detonation of explosives causing death and injury, and homicide.

The court ruled that the prosecution had proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt and that the evidence presented against the defendants had not been contradicted, reports BBC. The court also sentenced the four men to 20 years in prison for belonging to a terrorist group.

A fifth defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar, 47, was acquitted and discharged for lack of evidence.

Abubakar had been accused of financing the attack by allegedly receiving 800,000 naira (about $590) on two occasions from a suspect still at large and disbursing the funds to the attackers. During cross-examination, he said the money in his account came from his farming business and a cooperative society and denied that the other defendants were beneficiaries.

The prosecution said it would review the judgment with a view to possibly appealing the acquittal, according to the United Kingdom-based group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).

On June 5, 2022, the four men entered St. Francis Catholic Church in the town of Owo, Ondo State, during a Pentecost Sunday Mass, opening fire on worshipers and detonating explosive devices. Several children were among those killed.

One witness testified that she lost both legs below the knee and her left eye in a dynamite explosion detonated by the attackers.

Eleven eyewitnesses testified during the trial, and one said he recognized two of the defendants as attackers. The priest targeted in the attack survived.

The four men are said to be members of al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda affiliate, which they reportedly joined in 2021.

The men made voluntary confessions stating they carried out the attack on orders from a leader who remains at large and who told them the Catholic Church was committing blasphemy by insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad, CSW reported.

Neither al-Shabaab nor the Islamic State West Africa Province, which was initially suspected of involvement, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The trial commenced in August 2025 after Nwite ordered accelerated hearings.

Defense counsel was quoted as saying the convicted men would appeal the verdict.

During the trial, the defendants alleged they had been tortured, including being hung from the ceiling, beaten repeatedly, and subjected to electric shocks.

Executions in Nigeria require presidential assent and are rare in practice. The last execution took place in 2016, and by 2023, the number of prisoners on death row exceeded 3,000, according to EWTN News.

Bishop Jude Arogundade of Owo said people “will say at least justice was done, some level of justice was done,” but told Nigerian newspaper The Guardian that the verdict did not bring back the 41 people “brutally murdered on that day.” The bishop added that the country’s constitution and laws had to be upheld.

CSW Chief Executive Scot Bower called the verdict a “milestone” and urged Nigerian authorities to pursue justice consistently and without bias while noting that those who sponsored the attack remain at large.

“It was important that this trial sent a clear message that attacks on civilians in places of worship will no longer go unpunished," Bower said. "The verdict marks a milestone which we urge the Nigerian authorities to build on to erode the impunity surrounding religion-related violations by pursuing justice consistently, transparently, in accordance with the rule of law, and without bias.”

The June 2022 attack was the first terror attack on a church in southern Nigeria, CSW noted. Since then, the country has seen many more attacks on churches as it grapples with rising insecurity.

Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump accused Nigeria of failing to protect its Christian population from extremist attacks. U.S. forces are in the country assisting the Nigerian military in its fight against the Islamic State. Last week, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said U.S. forces have helped kill “hundreds” of Islamic State militants in Nigeria since arriving on the ground last year.

 Anugrah Kumar is a contributor at The Christian Post.

This article originally appeared in The Christian Post.