CrimeNews

Offa Bank Robbery: Inside story why ex-IG tried to frame me up – Saraki

…as hearing continues today

By Mumini AbdulKareem
Immediate past Senate President, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki has opened up on his disagreement with former Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris.
This coming just as the trail of case resumes Monday (today) before Justice Saleeman, National Pilot gathered last night.
Idris who refused to honour several summons by the Saraki-led Senate to come and brief the National Assembly on the worsening rate of insecurity in the country was eventfully replaced by Mohammed Abubakar Adamu.
But the frosty relationship between him and the Senators took another dimension when the police leadership under Idris accused Saraki of masterminding the deadly Offa Robbery that claimed several lives based on the alleged confessions of some of the arrested suspects.
Some of them while appearing in court have however contradicted the police allegation and insisted that the police then tortured them to implicate Saraki on the issue.
Shedding more light on the former police box grouse against him, Saraki who was addressing a traditional ruler in his police in the company of the former Abdulfattah Ahmed in a video that was shot during a period believed to be towards the end of the last administration said the former IG went too far on the issue to have linked him with the Offa robbery incident because of disagreement adding that he was confident that God will exonerate him at the end of the day.
According to him, the issue was nothing but mere propaganda.
He said: It is just God’s grace and love that made me stand before you now. All the propaganda about the Offa robbery, I thank God that… Alhamdulillah (how it all ended).
“I was telling Kabiesi that I was in Abia state on the day of the incidence where we were holding a thanksgiving for a senator when I received a phone call that our people have been killed at Offa.
“I left the event and Abia state immediately and came down to Offa and straight to the palace of the Olofa. I was the first person to get here, in fact I got here before the governor, to tell you how I was touched by the occurrence.
“After discussing with the Kabiesi, he requested for two things from me that first he wants a Mobile Police Barrack for the town and an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC). It was in the Kabiesi’s presence that I called the (former) IG and I told him what the people wanted. The APC was delivered after a week. It was the former IG that told me that one of his former boys (Adikwu) was among the people that perpetrated the act.
“Secondly, Kabiesi asked me to tell them not to close the banks in Offa like that of Omu-Aran and I immediately called the Governor of Central Bank on that day that he shouldn’t close the banks in Offa based on the incident that Offa is my own.
“Then, there was no rift between the former IG and I. When I went back to Abuja, the former IG picked offence with me that I refused to reign in senators the likes of Dino Melaye and others who he said were abusing him. But I told him we’re practicing democracy that you can’t say they shouldn’t speak. That is how he started his fight started, that I didn’t do enough to protect, stand by him against the abuse of the Senators. That was how he started all the nonsense about Offa robbery. He did it to the extent that he reported the matter to the President and they wrote to him that there is nothing that concern the president on this where they is separation of powers.
“He (Idris) knew that I am not involved. It is important for me to say this since the opposition party is trying to play politics with it. Where is the IG today, Saraki queried.
He “Our faith to stand with God on this issue has remained resolute and we believe by his grace, we will triumph”.

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