One of the chief suspects in the Offa armed robbery case, Ayoade Akinrinbosun, on Wednesday, narrated before the court how former Commander, IRT squad, DCP Abba Kyari, offered him N10m to implicate former Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, in the robbery case.
Akinrinbosun appeared on Wednesday before presiding judge, Justice Alimat Salman, at the Kwara State High Court, Ilorin.
While being led in examination by the Defence Counsel, Mathias Emeribe, SAN, the suspect said he was offered N10m to make false claim that Saraki asked them to carry out the bloody robbery operation.
He added that Kyari also promised to give him visa to any country of his choice, but that he turned down the offer.
According to him, he said I should admit and say Saraki was the one who asked us to go and rob. I told him I won’t do that. That I will rather die for what I didn’t do than to lie against an innocent man.
“He asked me to think over his offer very well. At this point he ordered officers Hassan and Mashood to return me to the cell. A separate one different from where others are and that they should stop torturing me,” he said.
Akinrinbosun said he was not allowed to write any statement in Ilorin except his bio data, until they were conveyed to Abuja in a tinted bus, where he was later kept in a place called Abattoir.
There, the suspect said some herdsmen were killed in his presence, adding that he was mercilessly tortured and shot in the leg in order to implicate Saraki.
Akinrinbosun maintained that Saraki has nothing to do with the robbery case.
“We were like 15 to 20 taken to Abuja, I only know few of them. We were put outside and served meal, but I couldn’t eat because my hands were paralyzed due to the touture I went through in their hands in Ilorin. They asked Kunle Ogunleye to feed me.
“They separated five of us, put us in the generator house and Officer Hassan Attila ordered that they brought some men. They went to bring five Fulani men. They brought them and killed them all in my presence.
“I was told, that was not a film. He asked me to stretch my legs and shot my right leg. He shot the second leg but when I tried shifting the leg, it hit my tomb,” he said.
The defendant then went ahead to show the gunshot wound on his legs to the Court.
Akinrinbosun added that one of the robbery suspects, Micheal Adikwe, was also shot dead in his presence, a situation that got him terrified, and made him agree to implicate Saraki in a prepared statement before the press.
Justice Alimat Salman adjourned the case till 13th of February, 2023.
