KWARA AND THE OFFA ROBBERY

 SAMMY JOHNSON contends that the robbery incident and widespread insecurity may be the defining moments of the current administration

The plot: A sitting senate president of the federal republic conspires with a serving governor to recruit men of the underworld in their den to execute a daylight dare-devil robbery in a state which the senate president once governed for eight years and his co-conspirator was the governor at the time. The robbery is so brazen and bloody that it reverberates across the length and breadth of the country leaving in its wake “sorrows, tears and blood” (apologies Fela). 

If a rookie student had presented the above in a fiction writing class to his lecturer, he would have been rebuked for a plot that would yield “an unbelievable story.” It does not meet the basic minimum of fiction writing – “a believable unbelievable story.” In other words, even though what is written is unbelievable (Fiction), the writer must endeavor to make it BELIEVABLE. So if in fiction, great efforts are made to make the story believable – the reason we read a novel and sometimes cry for the fate of a character or glued to the screen viewing a movie. The stakes are surely higher when dealing with FACTS in the real world.  

But it is this simple adherence to the basic tenet of believability that the incumbent Kwara State governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has turned on its head in his on-going accusations against the former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and then serving governor of the State, Abdulfatai Ahmed, on the dastardly Offa robbery. Pushing this weird narrative, the governor, is buying space on the front page of every national newspaper to grab instant attention, at cost running into hundreds of millions of Naira; money that would have been deployed to improve infrastructure and healthcare facilities for the benefit of Kwarans.

The governor, in struggling to rope in the perceived masterminds, crosses the boundary of FACTS to the margins of POOR FICTION. One wonders if he is aware of the unintended consequences of his smear campaign. The Offa robbery case may linger for the next one year and beyond and end up being the major legacy for which Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq will be remembered. The implications for the 2027 general elections in Kwara State can only be imagined.

For the records, the infamous Offa robbery in Kwara State took place on April 5, 2018. Considered one of the deadliest bank robberies in Nigeria’s history, five men were later convicted and sentenced to death for the crime. This information is in the public domain. So where is Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq getting his hackneyed information linking the former senate president, Bukola Saraki from? Or Abbdufati Ahmed? As the Chief Security Officer of the State, is this information by the investigating team not at his disposal? Why is he chasing shadows by making unsubstantiated allegations against Bukola Saraki and Abdulfatai Ahmed?  

At this point, it is important to lay bare the enduring legacy of Bukola Saraki as governor of Kwara State for eight years. We would highlight only two sectors: Agriculture and Power where he blazed a trail. Saraki, as governor, invited displaced white farmers from Zimbabwe to Kwara and set up Shonga Farms – a commercial farming model that boosted food production and was later replicated across Nigeria. Also, in what became famously known as the Zim-Kwara imitative, he opened the State to international investment and made Kwara a model in food production in Nigeria. 

On power, Kwara was the first State under his leadership, to complete Nigeria Independent Power Project (NIPP). He re-energised Ganmo Power Station, installed 725 transformers, 7 substations and connected 3,750 rural communities to the grid. He made power accessible to urban and rural dwellers and achieved 90% electricity access in Kwara versus 30% national average. In fact, there was stable power for 18-22 hours per day.

And as Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) – 2007-2011, Saraki turned the adhoc forum into a real power bloc/think tank. He championed polio immunisation efforts and signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and GAVI for sustainability.

In contrast, the incumbent governor, Abdurahman Abdulrazaq, has virtually no legacy project to his name. Indeed, in seven years, no big project has been commissioned under his watch. In the last four years of President Muhammadu Buhari as President and now in three years of President Bola Tinubu, for instance, he has not invited any President to visit the State to commission any project. The reason is simple: the governor has been sleeping on duty.

It appears therefore that the trumped up allegations against his predecessors are to garner attention. Ironically, the attention has been nothing but negative. Dredging up the Offa robbery at this time is the worst decision he could have made as it has coincided a spike in insecurity in the State.   

Kwara State is under serious attack by bandits, insurgents and kidnappers. Sadly, the two issues that are keeping Kwara State on the front page of national newspapers at present, are the Offa robbery, killing, kidnapping and attacks on villages, communities and towns, particularly in the southern and northern senatorial districts. There are reports of over 400 people already killed between January 2025 and March 2026. In the Woro community of Kaiama Local Government Area alone, 176 people were killed in one single attack. Many are still in the kidnappers’ den till now.

These are grim statistics and call for sober reflection by Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq. This is not the time to engage in frivolities by making pointless accusations but to roll up his sleeves and collaborate with the security agencies as his peers in other States are doing, to rid Kwara of bandits, kidnappers and insurgents. He should leave Bukola Saraki – who left the state better than he met it – alone and his immediate successor, Abdufatai Ahmed who built on the solid foundation to the joy of Kwara people. This fight against his predecessors is wrong headed and the earlier he pulled back, the better. If he does not know, nobody believes his cock and bull story of the involvement of Saraki or Ahmed in the Offa robbery. Instead, fingers are pointing at him as the accused are smelling like roses.  For the governor, the Offa robbery case and insecurity may end up being his major legacies and defining issues for his administration.

Johnson, a political analyst writes from Abuja