Saraki asks his ADC to obtain invitation letter from inspector general so he can visit police station

SENATE president Senator Bukola Saraki has responded to the invitation he received from the inspector-general of police to report to police headquarters for questioning over the recent Offa bank robbery by asking an aide to obtain a formal invitation letter.

Over the weekend, the inspector-general of police Ibrahim Idris, asked Senator Saraki to report to police headquarters for questioning after some of the robbers arrested following the gruesome Offa attack said he was their sponsor. In one of the most gruesome armed robberies ever witnessed in Nigeria, a gang of hoodlums ransacked Offa on April 5, attacking several banks and killing 33 people in the process.

Since then, the police have swung into action, arresting dozens of the robbers and under interrogation, some of them have confessed that they were originally hired by Senator Saraki. It appears that the senate president hired them as his political thugs, arming them and using them to curtail opponents but the hoodlums then decided to take things further by graduating to bank robbery.

Nine policemen were killed in the attack and after the robbers claimed the weapons and vehicles used were provided by Senator Saraki, Mr Idris asked the senate president to come and answer questions about his role in the affair. Senator Saraki, said he has asked his aide-de-camp to obtain the letter of invitation by the police to enable him to honour the alleged invitation immediately.

Senator Saraki said: “I have just informed my ADC to get the letter of invitation from the police in respect of the allegations raised yesterday, so that I can immediately honour the alleged invitation.”

He was asked to report to the Force Intelligence Response Team Office at Guzape, Abuja to answer to the allegations reportedly levelled against him by five alleged gang leaders involved in the robberies at First Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Ecobank, Zenith, Union Bank and Ibolo Micro-Finance Bank, all in Offa, Kwara State. The alleged gang leaders include Ayoade Akinnibosun, 37; Ibikunle Ogunleye,36;  Adeola Abraham, 35;  Salawudeen Azeez, 49; Niyi Ogundiran, 37 and  17 suspects arrested for direct involvement and active participation in the heist.

Apart from the gang leaders, other principal suspects said to have implicated Senator Saraki in their confessions are Michael Adikwu, 30, who allegedly killed 22 persons at the police station, Kabiru Afolabi,26; Omoseni Kassim,28; Kayode Opadokun,35; Kazeem Abdulrasheed, 36; Azeez Abdullahi, 27 and Adewale Popoola, 22. Others include Adetoyese Muftau, 23; Alexander Reuben, 39; Richard Terry, 23; Peter Kuunfa, 23; Ikechukwu Nnaji, 29; Moses Godwin, 28; Adeola Omiyale, 38; Femi Idowu, 34; Alabi Olalekan, 49, a personal assistant to the Kwara State governor and Yusuf Abdulwahab, 58, the chief of staff to the governor.

Police spokesman Jimoh Moshood, said:  “The gang leaders namely, Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salawudeen Azeez, Niyi Ogundiran and some of the other 17 suspects arrested for direct involvement and active participation in the Offa bank robberies admitted, confessed and volunteered statements that they were political thugs of the senate president Senator Bukola Saraki and the governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed. The five gang leaders further confessed during investigation that they are political thugs under the name Youth Liberation Movement aka Good Boys and confessed to have been sponsored with firearms, money and operational vehicles by Senator Bukola Saraki and the Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed."

He stated that the suspects also admitted to have stolen millions of naira from the banks and 21 AK47 rifles from the armoury of the police divisional headquarters, Offa, noting that they gave detailed information about how they planned and carried out the robberies. Mr Moshood narrated that investigations indicated that the Lexus SUV with the sticker, Saraki Kwara, State of Harmony, used during the bank robberies was hidden on the premises of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry in Ilorin, Kwara State, while the sticker was replaced with number plate, Kwara, KMA 143 RM.

According to Mr Moshood, the sticker was recovered from one Adeola Omiyale who drove the vehicle to the Government House, Ilorin after the robberies on instructions of Mr Olalekan, the personal assistant to the Kwara State governor who was privy to information that the police are looking for the Lexus SUV as an exhibit. In order to conceal evidence, the police said Mr Abdulwahab, the chief of staff to the Kwara State governor, who is also in custody, arranged for the removal of the sticker number plate from the exhibit vehicle and also registered the SUV to Mr Akinnibosun who was already in custody for more than six days before the registration of the vehicle.

“The personal assistant, political is currently in police custody and he has made a statement, which is assisting the police in further investigations into the case. A revolver pistol and pump action gun were recovered by the Police Investigation Team from Mr Olalekan’s farm where he directed his brother to hide them after his arrest,” Mr Moshood added.

In an interview, Mr Akinnibosun said he worked as a political thug for Senator Saraki in Kwara South, Kwara North and Kwara Central Senatorial Districts, while he was in the Peoples’ Democratic Party. He explained that the gang assisted the senate president to disrupt elections at polling centres his party could not win, adding that he had been working for Senator Saraki since he was the Kwara State governor.