DSS witness: Phone data led to arrest of Owo church attack suspects

DSS officers

A Department of State Services (DSS) operative on Thursday told the federal high court in Abuja how digital forensic tools were used to track and arrest suspects involved in the June 5, 2022, attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo state.

Testifying before Emeka Nwite, the presiding judge, the witness, identified as SSK, said investigators relied on call geospatial network filtering, cell tower triangulation and international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) analysis to trace the movement of the first defendant, Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza.

Led in evidence by Ayodeji Adedipe, counsel to the DSS, the witness said the agency filtered thousands of phone numbers that connected to cell towers in Owaluwa, Elegbeka and Ifon shortly before and after the attack.

“With these applications, we were able to filter thousands of mobile phones that had contact with the cell tower in Owaluwa, Elegbeka and Ifon,” the witness said.

“As a result of this, we narrowed it down to one of the defendants’ phone numbers. The defendant is identified as Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza (the first defendant).

“The system revealed a unique identification number, the international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) associated with the 1st defendant’s phone.

“This number is a unique digital fingerprint associated with every phone, meaning that no two phones have the same IMEI. Thecable