Offa robbery trial: I was asked to implicate Saraki ― Accused person

The trial within trial of the five suspects involved in the Offa
bank robbery in April 2018 continued on Friday at the State High
Court sitting in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.

During their arraignment before Justice Halimah Salman, the
suspects told the court how their confessional statements were
obtained by the police.

The first suspect, Ayoade Akinnibosun, in his testimony, told
the trial judge that he gave his statement under duress and not
voluntarily.

He explained that he was tortured and shot in two legs, alleging
that the police asked him to implicate the Senate President, Bukola
Saraki, but he refused.

Akinnibosun claimed that five men were shot dead in his presence
and that of other suspects, in order to force them to do the
bidding of the police.

He alleged that he was forced to sleep on the spot where the men
were killed, adding that his hands and legs were tied for days.

The suspect also told the trial judge that six hefty stones were
placed on his back and denied food for nearly one week while he was
being tortured.

He said they were kept inside the generator room at Police
Headquarters Abuja while a dismissed police officer, identified as
Michael Adiukwu, was brought to identify them if they were part of
the robbery gang.

According to Akinnibosun, the man denied knowing them and was
shot dead on the spot.

Afterwards, he said he was shown an already written statement
which he was asked to sign and agreed to do so for fear of being
killed.

The suspect insisted that whatever he said during the parade of
the press conference was written for him to memorise and confess to
the public.

He claimed that the police warned him not to implicate them that
the statement was made under duress.

Akinnibosun told the trial judge that he was given a four-page
statement to sign but he could not because his fingers were not
functioning due to torture.

He said one of his fingers was placed on the documents for thumb
printing and his request to read and go through the statement was
turned down.

After giving his testimony, the suspect was cross-examined by
the prosecution counsel.

Meanwhile, the defence counsel, Mathias Emeribe, asked for
further medical checkup to determine if the wounds Akinnibosun
sustained were truly from gunshots.

Justice Salman, however, turned down the request until proper
trial.

The second accused, Ibikunle Ogunleye, was thereafter called to
the dock and he corroborated the first accused, Akinnibosun’s
testimony of how he was tortured and how Michael Adiukwu was
killed.

In his testimony, the third accused person Abraham Adeola also
repeated the same process of how they were tortured both at the
Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS) office in Ilorin and
Abuja.