Offa Bank robbery: Kwara not involved in suspects’ arraignment

KWARA state government has said that it was not involved in arraignment of five of the suspected Offa bank armed bandits in Ilorin last week Tuesday.

It is recalled that daredevil armed robbers had invaded the ancient town of Offa, Offa local government area of the state on April 5, 2018, killing many people and carting unspecified amount of money.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin at the weekend, Kwara state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Kamaldeen Ajibade (SAN), said that the arraignment was strange to the state government, adding that no one was carried along, insisting that the police was yet to submit documents necessary for the state government to prosecute the robbery suspects.

It was gathered that five of the suspects were arraigned before an Ilorin Magistrate Court last Tuesday; few hours after Ajibade had accused the police of deliberate falsehood on claims that the trial of the accused was being delayed by the state.

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A total of 13 suspects had earlier been arrested over the incident with the police giving details of the alleged involvement of each during their parade at the force headquarters, Abuja. The suspects brought before the court were Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salaudeen Azeez and Niyi Ogundiran. However, Michael Adikwu, the retired police constable who was said to have confessed to being the mastermind of the bloody operation was not in court during the arraignment.

“We were not involved; we can’t arraign any of them without the case diary”, Ajibade told our reporter on phone, adding that the police might have quickly rushed to the court following his own earlier statement over the matter and in order to secure a remand order against the accused.

“Once we get the files from the police we will arraign them before the high court which is the proper place, but now we don’t even know who and who they brought to court, we are surprised why they have to make what looks like a midnight arraignment”, he said.

The suspects were brought before Magistrate Bio Saliu on the offences of criminal conspiracy and armed robbery, contrary to section 6 (b) of the Armed robbery and firearms (Special Provision) Act Cap R11 LFN 2004 and culpable homicide punishable with death contrary to section 221 of Penal Code.

The police First Information Report (FIR) alleged that on 5th April 2018, a group of dare-devil armed bandits invaded the Offa community adding that the bandits killed nine serving police officers, looted the Offa Police Divisional Armoury and carted away 21 AK 47 rifles and several other ammunition.

The FIR further stated that the robbers took to the street of the community shooting sporadically thereby killing 21 innocent Nigerians and were also alleged to have raided six (6) financial institutions; First Bank, Guarantee Trust Bank, Zenith Bank, Eco-Bank, Union Bank and Micro Finance Bank before leaving the town where they carted away huge sum of money.

The FIR noted that efforts of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) led by DCP Abba Kyari and other arms of the Force resulted in the arrest of the suspects and indicated that during the investigation the suspects confessed to have participated in the robbery while some of the weapons used were recovered from them.

The items included two AK 47 rifle, one Lexus RX 300 Jeep with reg. No (Kwara) 143 RM, one Mercedes-Benz compressor with reg. No LT 496 KJA and four phones belonging to victims of the incident. The FIR added that investigation is still going on to ensure the arrest of other suspects who are at large and to recover the stolen arms and ammunition, the looted money from the banks as well as unravelling the sponsors of the deadly attack.

The prosecutor team, led by OC Legal, however asked for adjournment on the basis that the offences alleged to have been committed by the accused persons are capital in nature and he would need to contact the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Barr Mumini Adebimpe to file appropriate charges against the accused persons before the State High Court.

He said, “On this note, we shall be asking that the accused persons be remanded in prison custody pending when appropriate charges are filed against the accused persons at the High Court”.

Counsel to the accused, Abdulrasheed Lawal told the court that he would file all necessary processes related to the matter in order to move the motion for their bail.

In his ruling, the magistrate noted that the matter can only be tried at the High court hence he refused to take the plea of the accused while the case was adjourned till November 14, 2018 for mention.