POLICE INVITE SARAKI, OTHERS OVER ALLEGED SPONSORING OF THUGS
The police have invited the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, over the Offa bank robberies on April 5 during which some policemen were killed and millions of naira stolen.
He was asked to report to the Force Intelligence Response Team Office at Guzape, Abuja to answer to the allegations reportedly levelled against him by five alleged gang leaders involved in the robberies at First Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Ecobank, Zenith, Union Bank and Ibolo Micro-Finance Bank, all in Offa, Kwara State.
The alleged gang leaders include Ayoade Akinnibosun, 37; Ibikunle Ogunleye, 36; Adeola Abraham, 35; Salawudeen Azeez, 49; Niyi Ogundiran, 37 and 17 suspects arrested for direct involvement and active participation in the heist in which nine policemen, and 33 persons including some pregnant women were killed.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, announced this in Abuja on Sunday while parading the suspects arrested in connection with the multiple robberies.
Apart from the gang leaders, other principal suspects said to have implicated Saraki in their confessions are Michael Adikwu, 30, who allegedly killed 22 persons at the police station, Kabiru Afolabi,26;Omoseni Kassim,28; Kayode Opadokun,35; Kazeem Abdulrasheed, 36; Azeez Abdullahi, 27 and Adewale Popoola, 22.
Others are Adetoyese Muftau, 23; Alexander Reuben, 39; Richard Terry, 23; Peter Kuunfa, 23; Ikechukwu Nnaji, 29; Moses Godwin, 28; Adeola Omiyale, 38; Femi Idowu, 34; Alabi Olalekan, 49 (Personal Assistant, (Political), to the Kwara State Governor) and Yusuf Abdulwahab, 58, Chief of Staff to the Kwara State Governor.
Moshood stated that the arrest of the gang leaders and others was made possible after the arrest of Ogunleye and Adikwu whose images were captured by the Closed Circuit Television camera at one of the banks which were circulated to the media and the public.
He explained that two AK47 rifles, two beretta pistols, one revolver, and one Toyota Lexus RX300 SUV with Kwara number plate, KMA 143 RM belonging to Akinnibosun used in the robbery were recovered.
Other exhibits, he added, included a Mercedes Benz car with Lagos registration number, LT496 KJA also belonging to Akinnibosun, Toyota Prado SUV with number plate 19KWGH belonging to Olalekan, a Toyota Camry Saloon Car with number LRN 481 FE and the sum of N600,000.
Four mobile handsets and one sticker number plate with the inscription, “SARAKI” “Kwara, State of Harmony,” were also said to have been recovered from the suspects.
The police spokesman said, “The gang leaders namely, Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salawudeen Azeez, Niyi Ogundiran and some of the other 17 suspects arrested for direct involvement and active participation in the Offa bank robberies admitted, confessed and volunteered statements that they were political thugs of the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki and the Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed.”
Moshood stated that the suspects also admitted to have stolen millions of naira from the banks and 21 AK47 rifles from the armoury of the police divisional headquarters, Offa, noting that they gave detailed information about how they planned and carried out the robberies.
He stated, “The five gang leaders further confessed during investigation that they are political thugs under the name Youth Liberation Movement aka “Good Boys” and confessed to have been sponsored with firearms, money and operational vehicles by the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, and the Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed.
“Meanwhile, the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, is being invited by the Nigeria Police Force to report to the Force Intelligence Response Team Office at Guzape, Abuja, to answer to the allegations levelled against him from the confessions of the gang leaders,” the police stated
Allegation baseless, but I’ll honour formal invitation – Saraki
Responding, Saraki in a statement issued by his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), Yusuph Olaniyonu, dismissed the allegation, describing it as baseless. He said he had no link with any band of criminals.
Saraki said the plot was concocted to embarrass him because of his insistence that the Inspector-
General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, should appear before the Senate to explain reasons for the rampant killings and violence across the country.
The statement read, ”The attention of the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has been drawn to a story circulating online and apparently derived from a press conference addressed by the Police Public Relations Officer, Moshood Jimoh, linking him (Saraki) to the Offa robbery.
“Dr. Saraki will want the entire public to disregard this claim as a baseless allegation and another ploy by the Police to implicate him by all means.
“Let it be known that there is no way I could have been associated with armed robbery against my people. When the Offa robbery incident happened, I was the first top public official to pay a visit to the place and right there in the palace of the traditional ruler, I put a call through to this same Mr. Ibrahim Idris, the IG, requesting him to make certain specific security arrangements as demanded by the people.
“Members of the public will remember that on May 16, 2018, I alerted the Senate to the information passed on to me by my state governor, Dr. Abdulfatai Ahmed, over a plot by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to frame me by getting some suspected cultists arrested in Ilorin to implicate me. It is believed that the timely leakage of the plot in that case aborted the use of the suspected cultists to implicate me. Now, it is the Offa bank robbery suspects that are about to be used.
“This plot is concocted to embarrass me and, in the mind of the IG, it is his own response after his refusal to honour the invitation by the National Assembly, headed by me, for him to come and offer explanations on the rampant killings and violence across the country.
“Like the earlier one, this frame-up will also fail as I hereby state categorically that I have no link with any band of criminals.
“As a person who has utmost respect for the rule of law and all constitutional institutions, when the invitation from the Police is formally extended to me, I will be ready to honour it without any delay.
“It is however sad that this abuse of the criminal investigation process aimed at intimidating and over-overawing the legislature, thereby obstructing it from doing its work, is a big threat to our democracy.”
SOURCE -THE AUTHORITY