Hammed Shittu in Ilorin
One of the principal suspects in the resumed trial of the Offa Bank Robbery case at the Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin, Mr. Ayoade Akinrinbosun, yesterday, regaled the court with exclusive details of how a former Commander of the IRT Squad, ACP Abba Kyari, who is currently standing trial for corruption and alleged involvement in drug dealings, offered him N10m and a visa to travel out of the country to implicate a former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, in the celebrated robbery case.
He said Kyari promised to give him a visa to any country of choice if he supported the move to implicate Saraki, but claimed to have turned down the offer.
Five suspects: Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham and two others were charged to court by the police for criminal conspiracy to rob the banks, murder of nine policemen and other citizens, and illegal possession of firearms.
During the incident, about 10 persons were reportedly killed while other residents of Offa sustained serious injuries.
However, during a cross-examination at the court by the Defence Counsel, Mr Mathias Emeribe (SAN), Akinrinbosun said he was offered N10m to claim that Saraki asked them to carry out the bloody robbery operation.
According to him, he said I should admit and say Saraki was the one who asked us to go and rob. I told him I won’t do that. 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 the cell. A separate one different from where others are and they should stop torturing me,” he said.
Akinrinbosun said he was not allowed to write any statement in Ilorin except his bio data, 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 in order to implicate Saraki, adding that, Saraki had nothing to do with the robbery case.
His words: “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 Officer 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 tomb,” he said, and went ahead to show the gunshot wound on his legs to the Court.
Akinrinbosun further added that one of the robbery suspects, Micheal Adikwu, was shot dead in his presence, a situation that got him terrified, and made him agree to implicate Saraki in a prepared statement before the press.
However, the presiding judge, Justice Alimat Salman, adjourned the case till 13th of February, 2023.
