Offa Robbery Suspect: “I Was Promised N10m And A Visa To Incriminate Saraki.”
Ayoade Akinnibosun, one of the main suspects in the Offa bank robbery case, testified in court yesterday about how former Intelligence Response Team (IRT) squad Commander ACP Abba Kyari offered him N10 million to implicate former Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki in the case. The case is currently being tried at the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin.
The suspect said that Kyari further offered to provide him a visa to any nation of his choosing if he chose to accuse Saraki, but the suspect declined the offer.
Police charged Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, and two others with committing bank robbery, killing nine police officers, and illegally possessing guns.
The attack is believed to have killed around 10 people, while additional Offa residents suffered significant injuries.
Akinninbosun said he was promised N10 million to say that Saraki instructed them to carry out the operation during cross-examination by the defense attorney in court, Mathias Emeribe (SAN), during the testimony of the witness.
“He told I should acknowledge and claim Saraki was the one who ordered us to go and loot,” Akinnibosun added. I assured him that I wouldn’t do it and that I would sooner die than lie about an innocent guy.
He urged me to carefully consider his offer. He then ordered policemen Hassan and Mashood to cease abusing me and bring me back to a different cell from where the others are.
The suspect said that other from his biodata, he was not permitted to write any statements in Ilorin before they were transported to Abuja in a tinted bus and afterwards detained in an area known as a “abattoir.” The suspect claimed that several herders were slaughtered there in his company, and he also claimed that Saraki had shot him in the leg and brutally tortured him.
He insisted that Saraki was unrelated to the robbery investigation.
“About 15 to 20 of us were brought to Abuja. Few of them are familiar to me. I was unable to eat the supper that was provided to us outdoors because the torture I endured in their hands in Ilorin had left my hands paralyzed. To feed me, they requested Kunle Ogunleye.
“They divided us into five groups and housed us in the generator while Hassan Attila ordered that some men be come. To fetch five Fulani men, they went. In my presence, they brought them and slaughtered them all. I was informed that it wasn’t a movie. He shot my right leg after asking me to extend my legs. When I attempted to move the second leg after he fired it, it struck my thumb,” he said.
