Hooded Security Officers Testify in Offa Bank Robbery Case

By Hammed Shittu

At the resumed hearing of the Offa robbery case yesterday in Ilorin, Kwara State, emotion flared in the court room when the CCT video showed how the suspects actually carried out the robbery operation at the banks, by hooded security officers from the Intelligent Unit of the Police Command.

The prosecution in the video relayed how one of the suspects neatly concealed the guns inside a sack, brought it at the premises of the bank as the guns were briskly shared among the robbers who started firing gun shots indiscriminately at the customers.

The court was also showed how the suspects used a dynamite to successfully blow off the vault where the money was kept.

Led in evidence by the prosecution council, Rotimi Jacob (SAN), the witness from the Intelligent Unit of the state Police Command said the person in the picture recovered from the CCTV footage was the second accused person, Ibikunle Ogunleye.

He told the court that he extracted the picture from the CCTV data requested from the affected banks by the state Police Command after the robbery incident of April 5, 2018, in Offa.

The hooded security officer also explained that from the footage, the second accused person was clearly captured covering his mouth and nosed with a cloth.

He noted that it took the application of experience and technicalities to be able to track down and identify the pictures of the suspect while in action.

Jacobs maintained that all the produced photographs handed over to the police authorities assisted them in identifying and subsequent arrest of the suspects.

In his testimony, a bank official, who preferred anonymity, confirmed that the total sum of N8.9million was carted away from one of the banks.

He said on April 5, 2018, in the afternoon they heard a sporadic shooting from outside the bank which indicated an armed robbery attack and they all ran away through the safety door of the bank.

He said when they return at about 6:39 pm, it was discovered that an explosive was used to break both the front door of the bank and the vault (safe )door.

In his submission the defence counsel, Mathias Emeribe, objected to the admissibility of the picture of the second accused person on the ground that some of the physical features of the accused person are not in the person in the video.

Despite the objection, the video clip and the flash drive were later admitted as evidences in the court.

Justice Haleema Salman, however, adjourned the case till tomorrow for continuation of hearing.