One of the principal suspects in the deadly bank robbery attack in Offa, Kwara State, on April 5, 2018, has disclosed how he was offered N10million and a visa to any country of his choice to implicate former President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki in the criminal case.
Ayoade Akinnibosun, a prime suspect in the robbery attack while appearing before the Kwara state High Court, Ilorin, at the resumed trial said the former Commander, Intelligence Response Team (IRT) squad, ACP Abba Kyari, met him and offered him money to claim Saraki was the mastermind behind the robbery.
According to the suspect, shortly after he was arrested, he was summoned by Kyari to write a statement admitting that Saraki sent him and his colleagues to rob Offa. However, Akinninbosun said he declined the offer, saying he would not implicate an innocent man.
It would be recalled that at the initial stage of investigation, the police had summoned Saraki, who was a senate president then, for questioning after he was allegedly linked to some of the robbery suspects.
Saraki was alleged to have bought guns for the suspects. However, the former Senate President had on several occasions denied any involvement.
During cross-examination by the defence counsel at the court, Mathias Emeribe (SAN), Akinninbosun again said Saraki was not involved in the attack, saying it was the members of the police that tried to implicate him.
Akinnibosun’s words: “He said I should admit and say Saraki was the one who asked us to go and rob. I told him I wouldn’t do it; that I will rather die for what I didn’t do than to lie against an innocent man.
“He asked me to think over his offer very well. At this point, he ordered officers Hassan and Mashood to return me to a separate cell, different from where others are, and stop torturing me.”
The suspect said he was not allowed to write any statement in Ilorin, except his biodata, until they were conveyed to Abuja in a tinted bus, where he was later kept in a place called “abattoir”. There, the suspect said some herdsmen were killed in his presence, adding that he was mercilessly tortured and shot in the leg to implicate Saraki.
He maintained that Saraki had nothing to do with the robbery case.
“We were like 15 to 20 taken to Abuja. I only know few of them. We were put outside and served meal, but I couldn’t eat because my hands were paralysed due to the torture I went through in their hands in Ilorin. They asked Kunle Ogunleye to feed me.
“They separated five of us, put us in the generator house and Hassan Attila ordered they brought some men. They went to bring five Fulani men. They brought them and killed them all in my presence. I was told, that was not a film. He asked me to stretch my legs and shot my right leg. He shot the second leg, but when I tried shifting the leg, it hit my thumb,” he said.
The defendant then went ahead to show the gunshot wound on his legs to the court.
The presiding judge, Justice Alimat Salman, adjourned the case till February 13, 2023.
