The Nigeria Police Force has kept mum over the investigation and
prosecution of suspects of the Offa banks robbery on April 5, 2018,
resulting in the killing of more than a dozen people including
policemen, bank workers, and customers.
The police have also not informed the public if the millions of naira
stolen by the robbers have been recovered.
Last December, the police said it was yet to recover the loot.
Five suspects were arrested and arraigned before Ilorin high court on
the offence bordering on criminal conspiracy to rob the banks, robbery
of the banks, conspiracy to murder, the murder of nine policemen and
other innocent citizens, and illegal possession of firearms.
Efforts by online medium, Sahara Reporters to confirm if the police
have concluded the investigation and prosecution on the matter were
unsuccessful as several calls made to the telephone of the police
spokesman, Frank Mba, were not answered.
Mba also declined to respond to a text message sent to him.
In March this year, a suspect facing trial for his alleged involvement
in the April 5 bank robbery accused the police of forcing him to
indict the then Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki.
The suspect, Friday Akininibosun, stated this while giving his
testimony at a high court in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
Akininibosun told the court that a former policeman allegedly involved
in the robbery, Michael Adikwu, was killed for his inability to go
with the alleged plan of the prosecutors.
Shortly after the April 5 robbery, the police cited confessions made
by the accused persons during the investigation, as indicting Saraki.
The police also said a picture of one of the accused at a wedding with
Saraki emerged, linking the then-Senate President with the armed
robbers.
According to the police, the suspects alleged to have worked as
political thugs for Saraki who allegedly supplied them with
ammunition.
Saraki denied any wrongdoing and accused the police of victimizing him.
Akininibosun retracted his earlier stance and accused the police of
masterminding his confession which he claimed was written for him by
some policemen.
โMy hands and legs were tied to the back and suspended in between two
tables by iron rod for like one hour 30 minutes. Then the senior
police officer, Abba Kyari, came around to tell me that I should say
that it was the Senate president that gave us guns to rob Offa banks,โ
Akininibosun said.
โI told him my life is at stake here and that I wouldnโt do such.
Then, he said I should do that for them and that theyโll pay me and
thereafter set me free. I disagreed and was carried back to the cell
on his instruction as I couldnโt walk.โ
The accused further revealed, โI was shot on my two legs. I was later
taken to Abba Kyari’s office, where he asked to know if I was ready to
co-operate and I said yes and pleaded not to kill me.
The next day was when Michael Adikwu was brought to identify us and
say what connected
us together. The dismissed officer said he didnโt know us and after
much torture, he was shot dead in our presence.โ
The police later confirmed Adikwuโs death in custody but claimed the
ex-police officer died of natural causes.
Akininibosun said a journalist was later brought in who took his
confessional statement, allegedly made under duress.
โI was panicky, thinking I was next to die. Later, a female TV
journalist was brought by a police officer with a note, saying that
was what they wanted me to say, and that if not, I will ‘travel’,
meaning, I would be killed.
โThat was how I agreed in the presence of the female journalist, who
recorded while I was also beaten at intervals.โ
In October 2018, the Kwara State Government accused the Nigerian
Police of being economical with the truth regarding the April 2018
robbery suspects in Offa.
The police had reportedly blamed the Attorney-General and Commissioner
for Justice for delaying the arraignment of the suspects.
They said they had concluded investigations and sent the case file to
the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice,
Abubakar Malami, who directed that the file be sent to the state
Attorney-General.
Reacting to the police statement in Ilorin, the then Attorney-General
and Commissioner for Justice Kamaldeen Ajibade (SAN) described the
police utterances as โcheap blackmail’.
Ajibade said: โI see this as a cheap blackmail by the police. They
have something to hide, which they are yet to tell Nigerians. I am
sure at the end of the day Nigerians will know what has transpired in
this matter. That is why the police are passing the buck.
“They can now see that Nigerians have started asking questions that if
youโve arrested suspects since April and they are yet to be arraigned,
then there must be something about it. I urge people to ask questions
about this matter.
โI am surprised, particularly the statement coming from the then
police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood. Moshood, without being personal, is
from Ilorin. He has contacts and I am sure he follows events in the
Kwara Command. He knows that the suspects are still with him at the
police headquarters.
โWhy will he now mislead the public that we are yet to prosecute? How
can you prosecute people kept in Abuja in Kwara State High Court? It
is not possible.โ
The A-G added, โI want to confirm to you that a letter was written
from the Office of the Director of the Public Prosecution of the
Federation under the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.
My office received the letter on August 27.
โThe content of the letter had to do with the investigation report on
the Offa robbery and directing my office to take up the prosecution of
the matter.
โImmediately we received this letter on September 6, we wrote a letter
through the Office of the State Director of the Public Prosecution to
the Office of the Attorney-General requesting them to provide for us
the original case diary in the Offa robbery and to transfer the
suspects to Kwara State Police Command. We waited for about three
weeks and did not hear anything from them.
โI then met the AIG Legal, David Ogbodo and requested that the
original case diary be sent to Kwara to enable us to start prosecution
of the matter. I also requested him to send the suspects to Kwara
State and he told me that he had directed the man in charge. That is
Abba Kyari.
โWe waited for another week, we could not get anything from them. So,
I directed my DPP to liaise with the police this time. He liaised with
the police both in the state and with Abba Kyari. They promised
everyday that they would send the suspects to Kwara and the original
case diary, to no avail.
โYou cannot prosecute under the law without having the original case
diary. You cannot even file a charge without the case diary and in
filing a charge, you have to exhibit what we call proof of evidence.
โThis proof of evidence entails the statements of witnesses.
Statements of witnesses in this sense, we are talking of the people
that investigated Offa robbers. We donโt have all this with us. We
donโt have the suspects on ground, we donโt have the witnesses on the
ground.
โHow do you file a charge? How do you prosecute people you cannot see?โ
