Police tortured me to implicate Saraki in the Offa Robbery, witness tells court

Shamsudeen Bada, a witness, has described how he reportedly underwent torture in order to accuse former Senate President Bukola Saraki in the Offa bank robbery event on April 5, 2018, to the High Court in Kwara State.

Speaking on Thursday during the continuing trial for the infamous robbery that claimed the lives of at least 17 people, including nine police officers, Bada, a former vice chairman of the state’s Irepodun Local Government Area (LGA), is a former vice chairman.

He claimed that the men on the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) under the direction of DCP Abba Kyari, who is currently on trial with four others for alleged hard drug trafficking offenses brought forth against them by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, oversaw his torture (NDLEA).

When the witness’s family threatened the police with a lawsuit, the witness claimed the IRT agents told him their orders came “straight from the IGP.”

He said that while he was being held, IRT agents assured him that he would be released if he identified Saraki as the robbery’s sponsor. He also claimed that one of the robbery suspects, Ayo Akinninbosun, was wounded in the leg when he chose not to accuse Saraki.

“My health began to decline after he was shot. To treat me, DCP Abba Kyari sent some nurses. The police gave me orders not to do any news interviews, not to appear in court, and to stop my political activities before I was eventually released,” he claimed.

The witness testified in court that the reason for his detention was to deal with the Saraki camp politically. The Offa robbery, which occurred one month after the robbery saga, became their choice because they “wanted to tag it with something to nail them,” he claimed.

The case was then postponed to January 16, 17, and 18, 2023 for the continuation of the prosecution’s cross-examination and trial after the prosecuting attorney later requested an adjournment to retrieve a document that he claimed was not brought to the court.

You may recall that the police charged five individuals, including Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, and two others, with murdering nine police officers and other people and illegally possessing firearms in the Offa, Offa local government area of Kwara state.