A court in Nigeria has sentenced four men to death and acquitted another for perpetrating a brutal attack on a church in 2022.

Forty-one people were killed and more than 100 injured when the assailants opened fire and set off improvised explosive devices at the St Francis Catholic church in the town of Owo during a vigil mass for Pentecost Sunday.

The court also sentenced the men to 20 years in prison for belonging to a terrorist group.

Presidential assent is required before any death sentence is carried out in Nigeria. There have not been any executions in the country for several years.

One of the witnesses the court heard from was a woman who had her legs amputated from the knees, and had lost her left eye as a result of a dynamite explosion.

A fifth defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar, was discharged and acquitted by the court due to insufficient evidence against him.

He was accused of having financed the attack, by allegedly receiving payments from another suspect – who is still at large – and then disbursing the funds to the attackers.