Kwara state government says it is not involved in the recent arraignment of five of the suspects arrested over the Offa bank robbery at Offa, on April 5, 2018, in which many people were shot dead.
Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the state, Kamaldeen Ajibade (SAN) said the arraignment was strange to the state as no one was carried along, insisting that the police was yet to submit the documents necessary for the state to prosecute the suspects.
Five of the suspects were arraigned before an Ilorin Magistrate Court on Tuesday; few hours after Ajibade had accused the police of deliberate falsehood on claims that the trial of the accused was being delayed by the state.
A total of 13 suspects had earlier been arrested over the incident with the police giving details of the alleged involvement of each during their parade at the force headquarters, Abuja.
The suspects brought before the court were Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salaudeen Azeez and Niyi Ogundiran. However, Michael Adikwu, the retired police constable who was said to have confessed to being the mastermind of the bloody operation was not in court during the arraignment.
“We were not involved; we can’t arraign any of them without the case diary”, Ajibade told our reporter on phone, adding that the police might have quickly rushed to the court following his own earlier statement over the matter and in order to secure a remand order against the accused.
“Once we get the files from the police we will arraign them before the high court which is the proper place, but now we don’t even know who and who they brought to court, we are surprised why they have to make what looks like a midnight arraignment”, he said.
