OFFA BANKS ROBBERY:5 months after denial, Police confirms National Pilot’s report

By Mumini AbdulKareem and Ahmed Ajikobi

Five months ago when National Pilot exclusively reported the alleged death of Michael Adikwu, the principal suspect and armourer in the deadly April 5, Offa banks robbery attack that allegedly claimed about 33 lives, including nine policemen, the Police debunked the claim.
Such denial however faded after over 150 days, yesterday, as the Force authority confirmed this medium’s report that Adikwu, a dismissed SARS corporal, died in police custody.
The a 30-yr-old Benue indigene was said to have confessed to be mastermind of the bloody operation regarded as the deadliest in the country’s history.
Adikwu reportedly admitted supplying the ammunitions and killing of 22 victims during the robbery incident.
The whereabouts of Adikwu was for some months a subject of public and social media debate as he was conspicuously absent each time the principal suspects of the robbery incident were paraded by the police and lately in court.
The whole drama however took a new and interesting twist, yesterday, when the Kwara State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Kamaldeen Ajibade (SAN) disclosed to newsmen at the Kwara State High Court that Adikwu is dead according to information he gathered from the police, Monday evening.
The A-G stated this shortly after five of the six principal suspects were brought to the court in Ilorin with Adikwu once again missing.
The five suspects arraigned were; Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salahudeen Azeez and Niyi Ogundiran.
When the case came up, Ajibade, who stated that his office received the case file of the robbery operation, Monday evening said that the head of Police investigation team, Abba Kyari informed him that one of the suspects, Adikwu is dead.
Ajibade, who said that the police was yet to give details of the suspect’s death, added that the five suspects brought to court could not be tried until an amendment had been made on the charge sheet.
According to him, “We have the names of six suspects on our charge sheet, but they brought five suspects, we cannot go on with the case until we amend the charges because we cannot prosecute a dead person.”
The Attorney General also said that the case could not go on because the suspects had no legal representation.
He, however, urged the court to adjourn the case so that the charges could be amended and the suspects could get legal team to represent them.
There were reports that two lawyers who were representing the suspects initially had announced their withdrawal from the case last week.
Justice Halima Salman however adjourned the case till November 30 and ordered that the suspects should get a legal team.
National Pilot sometimes in June broke the story that the prime suspect (Adikwu) may have been killed while in detention, according to multiple police sources.
A police source had told our reporter that Adikwu was killed during interrogation by the police before the first press briefings held by the police on the issue.
The source said the suspect was thoroughly tortured by the police for not ‘cooperating’ by volunteering certain information.
Also, another Police source, told this medium that Adikwu, who was relocated to Abuja alongside other suspects for discreet investigation, was tortured to death.
Although, Force spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood refused to comment on the issue then, he later told online news medium, The Cable, a day after National Pilot reached out to him that the suspect is in police custody but refused to disclose where he was being held.
“Michael Adikwu is in police custody. You know he is the one that led the killing of 22 people. So the fire arms that were carted away, he is helping the police in investigation to recover them,” he said.
“Even the people we paraded …were 15 and they are 22 in number; some are in Ilorin, some are in other locations. There is a state in the south-west where they kept him…; that is where he is. I can’t mention the state. He is in one of the south-west states,” he said.
On why Adikwu’s name was missing on the list of suspects, he said, the suspect’s name was not in the police statement “because he was not one of those we paraded.”
“It (Adikwu’s name) was not in the statement today but it was in the other one… Only five people that we brought today are the only people that their names were there. He is not among those people we paraded today (Wednesday).”
“There is nothing like (he has been killed in custody) he will be paraded soon. “Who killed him? We will parade him soon, once they recover all the weapons.”, he submitted.
However, when contacted, last night, the Force Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), Jimoh Moshood, however refused to comment on the circumstances surrounding Adikwu’s death while speaking with our reporter on phone.
According to him, he will make no further comment as the matter is still in court.
Meanwhile, the latest position by the police has raised strong posers about the whereabouts of other prime suspects such as Kayode Opadokun, Adewale Popoola and 10 others who were also arrested in connection with the crime but were yet to be paraded or arraigned in court.
The list of the other principal suspects according to earlier report from the police, include;
1.    Kabiru Afolabi ‘M’ 26yrs – Principal Suspect
2.    Omoseni Kassim ‘M’ 28yrs – Principal Suspect
3.    Kayode Opadokun ‘M’ 35yrs – Principal Suspect
4.    Kazeem Abdulrasheed ‘M’ 36yrs – Principal Suspect
5.    Azeez Abdullahi ‘M’ 27yrs – Principal Suspect
6.    Adewale Popoola ‘M’ 22yrs – Principal Suspect
7.    Adetoyese Muftau ‘M’ 23yrs – Principal Suspect
8.    Alexander Reuben ‘M’ 39yrs – Principal Suspect
9.    Richard Buba Terry ‘M’ 23yrs – Principal Suspect
10.    Peter Jasper Kuunfa ‘M’ 23yrs – Principal Suspect
11.    Ikechukwu Ebuka Nnaji ‘M’ 29yrs – Principal Suspect
12.    Moses Godwin ‘M’ 28yrs – Principal Suspect