Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
The first accused person in the trial of the Offa armed robbery case, Ayoade Akinibosun, has told a court in Ilorin that he was asked by the Police to implicate the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, while being interrogated.
Akinbosun, when being led in evidence in court, on Friday, in Ilorin, by his counsel, Mathias Emeribe, said he was taken to the police headquarters in Ilorin after his arrest where the head of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Abba Kyari, who came from Abuja asked him to implicate Saraki.
The trial within trial was resorted to, to determine the claims of the five accused persons that their confessional statements which the prosecution sought to tender before the court were made under duress.
Akinibosun alleged that Kyari asked him to implicate Saraki that he (Saraki) gave them guns but he told the IRT boss he could not do that because his life was at stake.
His words; “on 21st of May2018 Abba Kyary came .He said all he wanted me to do is to implicate Senator Bukola Saraki that he was the one who gave me guns and I told him that my life is at stake here, that I can n’t do such.
“He said they are going to pay me, they are going to set me free, that I should n’t worry. When I disagreed they called some people to come and carry me back to the cell . On the same day, I was taken to Abuja,” he stated
Akinibosun further alleged that in Abuja while they were still in the custody of the IRT, the police investigating team killed Micheal Adiqwu who was the principal suspect and some five other people .
He said they tied and put him and the four other accused in place they called theatre room after which they brought in the five other people and killed them and then asked them, the accused, to sleep on the killed people.
He added that he was later asked to stretch out his legs while he was shot on the two legs before being returned to the cell.
The accused said he and his co-accused were the next day brought from the cell to the theatre room where Adigwu, the principal suspect, a dismissed police man. was brought to them by the investigating team.
He said they asked Adigwu if he knew them ( the accused) or ever had any thing to do with them but Adigwu said no. He alleged that one of the members of the investigating team, Inspector Vincent, whom he said was otherwise addressed as ‘OC Torture’ shot Adigwu dead after he had answered ‘no’.
The accused person also told the court that the killings he witnessed and the torture he suffered had at a time made him panicking.
He stated that before they paraded him for press interview he was given a prepared statement to read and when he asked them if that was what they wanted him to say, they asked him to cooperate else they will ‘travel me’ explaning that they commonly use the term ‘travel’ to mean to kill a person.
The accused said what was presented to the court as his confessional statement was mostly not what he said and alleged that his thump print on the paper was forced by Inspector Hassan Hitila who he said prepared the statement.
He said while he was still complaining that he had not read the statement and could not also signed because his hands have been battered, the police officer allegedly forced his finger on inks and stamped it on the paper
While being cross examined by the prosecution counsel, Bola Gold, the accused said he did not belong in the Mandate political family group of Saraki but knows, in person, Saraki whom the described as a well known personality in the country.
He said he belonged to a group known as Kwara South Liberation Movement which comprises of educated but less privileged young people looking for jobs opportunities.
He said the group moved close to the Senator representing Kwara South, Rafiu Ibrahim while it also met with the state governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed who facilitated employment for some of them and helped some others to become Councilors
Two other accused persons who were led in evidence in the trial within trial, Ibikunle Ogunleye and Adeola Abraham corroborated Akinibosun’s sub mission that Adigwu, the principal suspect and five other people were killed in their presence while in Abuja.
The presiding judge, Halima Saleeman has adjourned the trial till March 25.
