We’ve received petition urging prosecution of other Offa bank robbery suspects – Kwara govt

Barely two weeks after the judgment of the Offa bank robbery, the Kwara State Government on Tuesday said it had received a petition from the Offa community urging the prosecution of specific individuals concerning the bank robbery that occurred on April 5, 2018.

It would be recalled that five suspected Offa bank robbers were sentenced to death by hanging.

The Informant247 gathered that Justice Haleemah Salman of the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin said the suspects were found involved in the deadly robbery attack in the ancient town of Offa, which occurred on April 5, 2018, where they unleashed multiple gun attacks in the bank’s area and killed Thirty-Nine persons including pregnant women and police officers.

Justice Salman, in her judgement, found the suspects guilty of illegal possession of firearms, armed robbery, and culpable homicide, adding that these offences are punishable by death and, therefore, sentenced them to death by hanging.

Mallam Rafiu Ajakaye, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, while disclosing this during the second quarter of the Kwara State Ministerial Cabinet press briefing, coordinated by the State Ministry of Communications, failed to disclose the names of those mentioned in the petition but indicated that the State Ministry of Justice would review the petition and take appropriate action.

Ajakaye stated, “The state government has recently received a fresh petition regarding the Offa bank robbery from the Offa Descendants Union, following the court judgment that certain individuals in the state should be prosecuted for their roles in the robbery incident.”

Meanwhile, in response to a question regarding the controversies surrounding the urban renewal project of Governor AbdulRazaq’s administration, Ajakaye disclosed that those attacking the government for embarking on the project were deliberately attempting to distract from the call by the Offa community for the state government to prosecute specific individuals linked to the robbery, adding that the government was currently reviewing the petition and, if convinced that particular individuals should be charged, it would not hesitate to proceed with legal action.

Also speaking at the press briefing, the State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Barrister Ibrahim Sulyman, revealed that the state government is currently prosecuting 200 criminal cases perpetrated between May 2024 and the present date.

Of this figure, he noted that the State Ministry of Justice, through its Department of Public Prosecution, has so far secured 57 convictions.

Sulyman indicated that many of the ongoing cases are serious, including homicide, kidnapping, robbery, and rape.

Represented by the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Musa Idris, the Commissioner stated that the ministry had also issued 262 legal advisories on various cases.

During the period under review, the Commissioner explained that the ministry’s Department of Revenue Services has received 35 tax defaulter cases from the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service, of which 12 have been concluded while 23 remain pending.