Offa Bank Robbery: Saraki exonerated as witnesses, suspects testify in court

By Mumini Abdulkareem

For Kwarans and indeed the entire citizens of Nigeria, the last few days especially concerning the continuation of the trail of the Offa robbery suspects has opened a new vista of fresh insight into the activities of what transpired on that fateful but dreadful day of April 5, 2018 when some daredevil men invaded the bustling town of Offa, one of the commercial nerve centres of Kwara South Senatorial district unleashing unforgettable carnage on the famous town and its citizens.
Following the failed attempt by the former Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu to allegedly rope in former Senate President, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki as one of the masterminds of the attack, an allegation that Saraki has consistently described as absurd and outright falsehood taken overboard, the subsequent arrest of the suspects and their eventual trial which has been awaited with bated breadth has provided more details in what transpired without any link attached to the former Senate President.
Saraki traducers and political opponents have tried to use the Offa robbery narrative to erase and diminished the political capital of the former Governor of Kwara since he lost his return to the senate last year following what he Saraki described as “illegal deployment of federal forces and other undemocratic means”.
But as salacious, heart rendering and terrifying as the tales coming from the court had been, it has been nothing but an anticlimax and disappointment for Saraki’s political opponents. On the other hand, it has rather turned out to be vindication upon vindication for Saraki, affirming his innocence since the suspects and eyewitnesses called to testify under oath of what really transpired while the incident lasted spewed graphic details of the incident in court.
It was the first suspect, Ayoade Akinnibosun that first punctured the alleged conspiracy against Saraki when he said right there at the police headquarters last year without any fear of expositing or putting his life in danger when he was paraded at the height of acrimonious relationship between Saraki and the former IG that the police told him to implicate the former Senate President, adding that his confessional statement were obtained under duress by the police while in custardy. The same allegation was leveled against the police by two other accused, Ibikunle Ogunleye and Adeola Abraham.
According to Akinnibosun while testifying before the court in a trial within trial, the police deliberately killed Adikwu (to allegedly perfect the theory of conspiracy against Saraki).
Answering questions during cross-examination by the defence counsel, Mathias Emeribe, Akinnibosun, who is the first accused in the case, claimed Adikwu, who was the mastermind of the robberies, was shot dead by one Inspector Vincent attached to the police Intelligence Response Team.
Their confessional statements had been a subject of another litigation of sort between the defense and prosecution. While being examined and cross-examined by their counsel, Emeribe and the prosecution counsel, Razaq Gold, they alleged that they were tortured and threatened by the police to make their confessional statements. The prosecution witness, Inspector Hitila Hassan, however told the court that it was made voluntarily under his supervision. When lead prosecuting counsel, Prof Wahab Egbewole (SAN), sought to tender the statements as exhibits, Emeribe objected and argued that the accused did not volunteer their statements which the prosecution wanted to tender before the court, noting that they fell short of the provisions of the Evidence Act, particularly sections 28 and 29.
According to Akinnibosun, “Abba Kyari told me to say that the Senate President Bukola Saraki gave me the guns we used for the operations. But I declined. He promised that they would reward me handsomely and set me free if I could indict Saraki. When I disagreed, they asked some policemen to take me back to the cell. During this time, my hands were tied to my legs”, he added.
The trio also claimed Inspector Vincent shot dead five Fulani men when they were kept at the IRT ‘theatre room’ adding that it was in the same ‘theatre room that Inspector Vincent, popularly known as Mr Torture, allegedly shot dead Adikwu for failing to indict them (suspects).
Akinnibosun’s narrative was also collaborated by Ogunleye who said “they brought the late Adikwu to implicate us and he said he had not met any of us in his life – that was why Mr Torture shot him to death”.
Plea for Adikwu’s Exhumation
At the resume trial, another suspect Azeez Salawu, told the court in Ilorin, Kwara state, how six suspects were killed in his presence by the policemen in Abuja. Azeez gave graphic details of how he was being tortured in “Generator house” at police headquarters in Abuja with tyre hung on his neck and his two hands tied to the back. He said his body was hung within two main planks amid heavy beating before they shot dead six persons in his presence.
All the accused; Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salahudeen Azeez, and Niyi Ogundiran were present in court yesterday.
Salawu who denied the statement credited to him said that the policemen interrogating him did that purposely to coerce him to admit his alleged participation in the bank robbery attacks in Offa, where 18 people, including policemen, were reportedly killed.
Defense counsel, Mathias Emeribe, subsequently prayed the court to order the exhumation of the corpse of Michael Adikwu, who the police maintained died in police custody in Abuja in order to confirm the cause of his death. He added that such is necessary to determine whether the cause of Adikwu’s death is natural or otherwise. He said that attempts by the prosecution to impress it on the court that there are only five suspects in the case amount to suppression of facts.
Emeribe recalled that when the case first came up in October 2018, six suspects were listed on the charge sheet, including Michael Adikwu, who the police later claimed to have died in their custody.
“Suppression of fact is a fundamental issue in criminal law that should not be swept under carpet” He stressed. Azeez Salawu, the fourth defendant, on how police killed six persons right before him during interrogation said,” That same day, Inspector Hassan directed officer Vincent to go and bring five people from somewhere.
“They asked me to watch what they’ll do to the five persons and that they will do the same for me if I don’t cooperate with them. They shot dead the five persons in my presence. They also shot Akinnibosun, Adeola, and Ogunleye on the legs in my presence. They threatened to kill me but I started begging that I didn’t do anything wrong.
“They said I and Ogunleye robbed at Offa and I denied this but they insisted. They beat me mercilessly inside a generator house, otherwise called theatre. It’s a lie that they interrogated me in a conducive environment.
“On the second day, I was brought out again from the cell. They showed a man to me and asked me whether I know him. The man is Michael Adikwu. I said I don’t know him. They also asked him whether he knows me but he replied no. They killed him in my presence. I pleaded with them not to kill me because my children are still young. They tied me down and hanged me again. I then asked them what they wanted from me when the torture became unbearable”, he said. Salawu further claimed that he was forced to thumbprint a statement already prepared by the police against his consent.
But prosecution counsel, Abdulwahab Egbewole (SAN), raised issue on the alleged contradictions in the dates when the suspects claimed they were interrogated and the police records and therefore, urged the court to admit the confessional statements by the suspects.
The judge, Justice Halimat Salman adjourned the case till July 22, when the main trial will commence.
The trial continuation of the trial at the adjourned date was however stalled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a circular pasted on one of the walls in the court premises signed by the chief registrar of the State High Court, Mrs Ibijoke Olawoyin, the court decided to shutdown because of “the risks associated with public gathering “.
“It has been observed that the recent resumption of work in the state judiciary has led to an upsurge in the number of staff and members of the public trooping into the court premises without strict compliance with COVID-19 protocols put in place by the state technical committee on COVID-19 particularly as it relates to categories of workers allowed to attend office”, the statement added which put temporary halt to the revelations coming out from the court over the trial.
Slain Officers
When the trial resumed after the COVID-19 delay in September, it was another tale of exoneration for Saraki as a former District Police Officer (DPO) in Offa police station, Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State, Adamu Danjuma, narrated in graphic details how armed robbers in April 5, 2018, killed nine police officers and eleven civilians in cold blood in the Kwara town.
Danjuma, at the time the station’s DPO, revealed how he escaped the attack by the skin of his teeth.
The police officer said the armed robbers had destroyed the police armoury and carted away 21 AK47 rifles.
Giving evidence at the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin, Danjuma, who is the fifth prosecution witness (PW5), added that the accused armed robbers also used explosive to attack banks and the police post.
He gave the names of the police officers and men that were gunned down by the suspected robbers as Julius Pelemo (ASP), Yusuf Danjuma (Inspector), Grace Makinde (Inspector) and Oke Kayode (Inspector). Others are Sergeants Mustapha Kolawole, Bilikisu Babawale, Abimbola Adedokun, Yootum Nakoma and Monday Isa.
According to him: ‘On the said date at about 4:45 pm, I heard a gunshot from the direction of Captain Cook Eatery Junction in the town; in two minutes interval I heard sporadic shootings from that direction heading towards my police station. Immediately, I came out of my office to the charge room (counter). The shootings were approaching the station.
‘In response, I also fired gunshots into the air from my pistol. As a result there was temporary stoppage of shootings from outside. Suddenly, the shootings started coming in from different directions towards the station. A lady who was manning the pedestrian gate was shot in one of her arms making her to abandon the place and ran for her dear life. The shootings continued.
‘Thereafter, the robbers released explosive into the security tower of the station. Another explosive was released and it hit the main road and bored deep hole on the road. This melee disorganized the whole station. Then the ammunition in my pistol had got exhausted. This made me to run for cover at the back of the station’s mosque. At the back of the mosque I sighted three of the armed robbers chasing ASP Julius Pelemo to the back of the station’s fence. Then I heard the shout of the late Julius after a gunshot. Then I heard one of the robbers calling those ones that ran after the late ASP to come over to the charge room (counter). One of them entered the Surveillance Office and shot dead a police woman. From then two of them ran to the charge room (counter). I now changed my position to the toilet near the back of the fence. At that place I was able to communicate with the state Commissioner of Police, deputy commissioner, operations and the command’s spokesperson seeking for reinforcement. While this was happening simultaneously, I was hearing gunshots at the banks direction in the town. I was also hearing explosions and accompanying flames around banks area.
‘At interval of between five and 10 minutes I would hear shootings from the charge room, making it impossible for me to come out of the toilet. After a while I heard shouts from the town that “olee they don go”. From the toilet I headed straight to the charge room and then to the armoury to see the level of damage. When I entered the armoury, I discovered that they had broken the armoury key. Then I went to my office and took my office padlock to lock the armoury.’
The police chief said that three civilians killed in the station by the robbers were one suspect and two witnesses’, adding that ‘While I was planning to take corpses of the deceased to the mortuary, the Administrative Officer of Mopol came into the station with two police officers shot dead on their duty post at the banks. In addition, other people brought in corpses of civilians killed by the robbers.’
He said he was instrumental for the conveyance of the 17 corpses to the General Hospital in Ilorin for autopsy and got their death certificates. ‘When I did a preliminary investigation and took inventory of the arms remaining in the armoury. Then we mopped up the expended ammunition and deposited same at the state headquarters in Ilorin,’ he said.
Among the recovered exhibits, he said, are two expended 5.6mm black ammunition; four 5.6mm live ammunition; 39 expended 7.6mm ammunition; one expended 9mm ammunition; one live 5.6mm ammunition, four pellets and cartridge safety box labeled Ikoyi, Lagos, Ministry of Police Affairs.
On Tuesday 7th September, when the PW6 was called, his revelation was shocking as he said the police could not gain access to armoury as the officer who was in charge of ammunition that day was sleeping in his office.
According to Sergeant Sulaiman Mahmud, his colleagues could not gain access to the armoury where weapons were kept in the station because they were helpless, adding that the officer in charge of the armoury was killed right inside his office while sleeping at the time the suspected armed robbers invaded the police station.
Mahmoud, the sixth prosecution witness said that the armoury officer, Oke Kayode, was ill and on medication, sleeping in his office, when the robbers struck at about 4:45 pm on that fateful day.
“I was at the entrance of the police station when I suddenly heard gunshots from Captain Cook junction. I ran into the police station shouting to alert others that armed robbers were approaching our station. I ran for cover shooting to scare the robbers away. Suddenly, my gun got hooked and no one to assist me. I ran into the escape route of the station with my rifle. As I was about scaling the fence, my rifle fell off me and I couldn’t go back to retrieve it as the armed robbers already took over the station. After the shooting subsided, I came back to meet people crying. I went to the place where my rifle fell off me, but I didn’t see it again”, he noted.
As the trial continues in December, all what has transpired in court so far has not only pointed to the fact the former Senate President is not only ignorant of the allegations against him over the issue but also showed there was a conspiracy of sort to rope him in the desperation to pull him down at all cost. It will be very interesting to see how the puzzle of Adikwu’s death, who is a principal suspect in the case is resolved and all the other details that surround the circumstances of his alleged murder.