A witness of the Department of State Security, DSS, code named SSD has told the Federal High Court in Abuja that the explosive device used to attack St Francis Catholic Savier Church, Owo in Ondo State on June 5, 2022 shattered her two legs and later led to an amputation from above her knees.
The witness, who is a trained nurse and housewife on Wednesday, told Justice Emeka Nwite that she also lost her left eye to the explosions that rocked the church during the terror attack.
While testifying in a terrorism charge against five defendants accused of masterminding the Owo church attack, the witness informed the court that she has been confined to a wheel chair for the rest of her life as a result of the attack.
She further stated that her left eye has also permanently gone blind as a result of the severity of the attack on the church.
Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Ayodeji Adedipe, SAN, the victim, who is an eye witness in the terror attack that rocked the church, narrated how the terrorists stormed the house of God shooting sporadically.
She said she ran to the choir gallery for safety but because many people had taken refuge at the gallery, the assailants threw an explosive device suspected to be dynamite, which killed many and maimed others, including herself.
The witness said she spent five months in the hospital before, adding that 41 members of the church lost their lives and several others sustained various degrees of injury in the incident.
After her evidence, the DSS lawyer called the fifth prosecution witness code named SSE, who is also an eye witness and the husband to the fourth prosecution witness.
The witness, a civil servant residing in Owo, Ondo State, narrated how the terrorists attacked the church on the fateful day, killing 41 parishioners, leaving about 100 people injured.
Aside his wife, SSD, who lost her two legs and a left eye in the incident, he stated that her mother also sustained a knee injury. He added that he had to sign an authorisation for the amputation of his wife’s two legs at the hospital.
The witness said that after the amputation of his wife’s legs, the Ondo State government promised her artificial legs but that the vendor was unable to provide useful artificial legs until the tenure of the government elapsed.
“The current Ondo State government is not doing anything about her again. Several times, I called the state Commissioner for Health, but they are not doing anything about it”, he told the court.
The court admitted the statements of the two prosecution witnesses as exhibits and fixed February 10 and 11 for continuation of trial.
