Police parading 5 gang leaders of Offa Bank Robbers with other members of the gang including Jeep with plate number Saraki and other arms used by the gang during offa Bank robbery at Police HQ in 2018
By Demola Akinyemi
The trial of the Offa robbery continued in an Ilorin High Court on Tuesday, as the Police officer who was the station guard on April 5,2018 when the police station and some banks in Offa , Kwara state were attacked by suspected armed robbers, Sergeant Sulaiman Mahmud told the court why the policemen on duty that day were helpless and were overwhelmed by the armed robbers.
All the accused; Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salahudeen Azeez and Niyi Ogundiran were also present in court Tuesday.
The police officer, in the dock who told the court that his colleagues could not gain access to the armoury where weapons were kept in the station further noted that the officer in charge of the armoury was killed right inside his office while sleeping at the time the suspected armed robbers invaded the police station.
Mahmoud, the sixth prosecution witness said that the armoury officer, Oke Kayode, was ill and on medication, sleeping in his office, when the robbers struck at about 4:45 pm on that fateful day.
The police officer, who said that he lost his AK 47 rifle during the robbery incident, added that the gun dropped while he was scaling the police station fence to escape superior firepower of the attackers.
He said, “I was at the entrance of the police station when I suddenly heard gunshots from Captain Cook junction. I ran into the police station shouting to alert others that armed robbers were approaching our station. I ran for cover shooting to scare the robbers away. Suddenly, my gun got hooked and no one to assist me. I ran into the escape route of the station with my rifle. As I was about scaling the fence, my rifle fell off me and I couldn’t go back to retrieve it as the armed robbers already took over the station. After the shooting subsided, I came back to meet people crying. I went to the place where my rifle fell off me, but I didn’t see it again”
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Mahmoud also said during cross-examination by the defence counsel, Mathias Emeribe, that Inspector Kayode Oke, the man in charge of the armoury was killed inside his office while sleeping as he was on medication.
The court on Tuesday also ordered the prison authorities to see to medical complaint of the first accused in the robbery case, Ayoade Akinnibosun, who the defence counsel said needs serious medical attention.
The defence counsel had told the court that Akinnibosun is having severe pains on his wrist, ankle and right lap.
The counsel added that Akinnibosun, “had swollen on his right lap close to his scrotum. The pain has been constant, repeated and severe. He needs a thorough medical examination”
The presiding judge, Justice Halima Saleeman, also overruled objection to the admissibility of the true certified copies of the deaths certificates of nine policemen who lost their lives to the robbery incident, raised by the defence counsel.
The defence counsel had objected to the admissibility of the document, saying that the documents were not coming from the maker and thus not admissible.
Gold had said that the police officer, who is the prosecution’s next witness, Danjuma Mohammed Garba, is away in Somalia on a training course and would complete the programme on December 15, 2020.
The prosecution counsel had said that the video recordings and CCTV shots of the robbery incident in the affected banks ought to be played and analyzed in court by Garba before any other witness would give evidence.
“Without tendering those documentary evidence through him, our other witnesses would not be able to give evidence”, Gold said.
While adjourning the case to December 21 and 22, 2020, Justice Saleeman agreed to long adjournment moved by the prosecution counsel, Bola Razaq Gold.
