Offa Robbery: Saraki Replies Police, Says IGP Fighting Back Over Senate Summons

President of the Nigerian Senate, Mr Bukola Saraki, has responded to his summon by the Nigeria Police over his alleged links with the Offa bank robbery suspects arrested by the police.

THE WHISTLER recalls that the police had on Sunday invited Mr Saraki to make himself available at their headquarters in Abuja to answer to allegations levelled against him by the bank robbery suspects in their custody.

The Force PRO, Mr Jimoh Moshood, said during a press briefing today, that the gang leader of the perpetrators of the deadly Offa bank robbery allegedly confessed to having relations with the Senate President and the Governor of Kwara State, Mr. Abdulfatah Ahmed.

But Saraki, who expressed readiness to oblige to the police invitation when it is formally extended to him, however noted that his indictment by the police is allegedly the Police IG’s “own response after his refusal to honour the invitation by the National Assembly headed me”.

The Senate President’s response reads partly, “The attention of the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has been drawn to a story circulating online and apparently derived from a Press Conference addressed by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Moshood Jimoh, linking him (Saraki) to the Offa robbery.

“Dr. Saraki will want the entire public to disregard this claim as a baseless allegation and another ploy by the Police to implicate him by all means.

“Let it be known that there is no way I could have been associated with armed robbery against my people. When the Offa robbery incident happened, I was the first top public official to pay a visit to the place and right there in the palace of the traditional ruler, I put a call through to this same Mr. Ibrahim Idris, the IGP, requesting him to make certain specific security arrangements as demanded by the people.

“Members of the public will remember that on May 16, 2018, I alerted the Senate about the information passed on to me by my State Governor, Dr. Abdulfatai Ahmed, over a plot by the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to frame me up by getting some suspected cultists arrested in Ilorin to implicate me. It is believed that the timely leakage of the plot in that case aborted the use of the suspected cultists to implicate me. Now, it is the Offa bank robbery suspects that are about to be used.

“This plot is concocted to embarrass me and, in the mind of the IGP, it is his own response after his refusal to honour the invitation by the National Assembly, headed me, for him to come and offer explanations on the rampant killings and violence across the country.

“Like the earlier one, this frame-up will also fail as I hereby state categorically that I have no link with any band of criminals.

“As a person who has utmost respect for the rule of law and all constitutional institutions, when the invitation from the Police is formally extended to me, I will be ready to honour it without any delay.

“It is however sad that this abuse of the criminal investigation process aimed at intimidating and over-overawing the legislature, thereby obstructing it from doing its work, is a big threat to our democracy “, read the statement issued by Saraki’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity.