One of the suspects in the April 5, 2018 bloody bank robbery in Offa, Kwara State, Ayoade Akinnibosun, alleged yesterday that the police asked him to implicate Senate President Bukola Saraki.
Akinnibosun alongside two other suspects, Ibikunle Ogunleye (second accused person) and Adeola Abraham (third accused person) gave evidence at a Kwara State High Court in Ilorin, how the police allegedly extracted statements from them under duress.
The other accused persons, Salaudeen Azeez and Niyi Ogundiran, were in court.
The three accused persons alleged that the principal suspect in the robbery, Michael Adikwu, was shot dead by one Inspector Vincent attached to the Intelligence Response Team (IRT).
The police high command had reportedly announced that Adikwu slumped in its custody and was taken to hospital before he died.
IRT, with office in Abuja, is headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari.
Akinnibosun, the first accused person, Ogunleye and Abraham were examined and cross-examined by their
counsel, Mathias Emeribe and prosecution counsel, Razaq Gold, in a trial within trial on how they were allegedly tortured and threatened by the police to make confessional statements.
Prosecution witness Inspector Hitila Hassan had last Thursday told the court that the suspects voluntarily gave their statements under his supervision.
Lead prosecuting counsel Prof. Wahab Egbewole sought to tender the statements as exhibit, but defence counsel Mathias Emeribe objected.
He argued that the statements were not voluntarily taken, noting that they fell short of the provisions of the Evidence Act, particularly sections 28 and 29.
At yesterday’s proceedings, Akinnibosun alleged: “Abba Kyari told me to mention the name of Senate President Bukola Saraki that he gave me the guns for the operations. But I declined.
“He promised that they would reward me handsomely and set me free if I could indict Senator Saraki. When I disagreed, they called some policemen to take me back to their cell. During this time, my hands were tied to my legs in the back. Their children are in America and Europe; you are allowing yourselves to be used as political thugs.”
Akinnibosun said he was the leader of Kwara South Liberation Movement, a group that mobilised young, jobless graduates for the lawmaker representing Kwara South, Dr. Rafiu Ibrahim.
“The essence is to secure government jobs for the boys,” he said.
Akinnibosun, Ogunleye and Abraham gave graphic details of their horrifying experience allegedly in the police custody in Abuja.
During one of their encounters at the police IRT ‘theatre room,’ they alleged that in their presence, Inspector Vincent shot dead five herdsmen.
‘The theatre room,’ according to the accused, is the generator room of the IRT’s office and it also serves as where suspects are extra-judicially executed.
The trio alleged that it was in the same ‘theatre room that Inspector Vincent, otherwise known as ‘Mr. Torture,’ shot dead Adikwu for failing to indict them in the robbery.
Ogunleye said: “They brought the late Adikwu to implicate us and he said he had not met any of us in his life. That was why ‘Mr. Torture’ shot him dead. “
Justice Halimat Salman adjourned the case till March 25 for continuation of trial within trial.