Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has said he had been vindicated, following the announcement of the death of Michael Adikwu, the principal suspect in the Offa Bank armed robbery attack, in Police custody.
He, therefore, called on the presidency to probe the death of Adikwu “so as to know how and when the suspect died”.
Recall that the robbery operation which involved five commercial banks on April 5, 2018, claimed scores of lives.
In a statement by his Special Adviser, Yusuph Olaniyonu, in Abuja , Saraki noted that the new disclosure by the police has vindicated his earlier claim that the suspect had been murdered in police custody and that the investigation was politically-motivated to implicate him (Senate president), Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara Stateand a few others.
According to him, the inquiry would help to thoroughly examine and interrogate how the investigation into the robbery incident was conducted by the police and whether the investigation followed the normal process and comply with global best practices.
He added that the police needed to confirm why it took them so long to make the disclosure about the death of the principal suspect after they categorically denied it at the time he (Saraki) disclosed the information and it was reported in the media.
He said, “It should be recalled that when we mentioned it that the principal suspect had been murdered and that investigation into the Offa robbery attack was politically-motivated and targeted at implicating me and other individuals, the Police Public Relations Officer, Moshood Jimoh said: ‘Michael Adikwu is in police custody. You know that he is the one that led the killing of 22 people. The firearms that were carted away, he is helping the police in the investigation to recover them. There is a state in the South-west where they kept him. I can’t mention the state. It is in one of the South-west states’.”
Saraki added that the fresh facts have now thrown more light into why there had been inconsistencies in the various statements by the police.
“The police initially told the Attorney-General of Kwara State that the principal suspect was alive and they only later reluctantly disclosed that he died in the course of arrest. How can a suspect confirmed to be in custody now be said to have died in the course of arrest? This contradiction shows a deliberate attempt to cover up something.
“It is obvious that the police have orchestrated the information they give to the public on the Offa robbery only to tarnish the image of the Kwara State Governor and myself.
Justifying his call for the probe of the suspect’s death, Saraki declared “we are calling for a public inquiry to probe the issues of extra-judicial killing, the cover-up of this killing with the aim of framing up some individuals for political purpose and politicising of criminal investigations.
Kwara State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Kamaldeen Ajibade(SAN), yesterday had disclosed at the state High Court that the prime suspect and gang leader in the Offa bank robbery, Michael Adikwu, had died, Naija News reports
Justice Halima Salman adjourned the matter till November 30, 2018 and ordered that the suspects should get a legal team.