A court witness, Shamsudeen Bada, has made accusations against Abba Kyari.
The witness narrated before a Kwara State High Court how men from the Inspector-General Police’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT), led by the embattled Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, tortured him in order to implicate former Senate President Bukola Saraki in the April 5, 2018, Offa robbery incident in Kwara State.
Bada, a former Vice Chairman of Kwara State’s Irepodun Local Government Area, recounted his experience on Thursday during the resumed trial of the suspects in the Ilorin robbery case.
The police charged five suspects, Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, and two others, with criminal conspiracy to rob banks, murder of nine police officers and other citizens, and illegal possession of firearms.
SaharaReporters also reported in 2018 that two suspected armed robbers arrested in connection with the high-casualty attack on banks in Offa, Kwara State, had earlier implicated former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, in their confessional statements.
The link of Saraki to the Offa gang came three days after five gang leaders who were part of a dozen that killed 33 people during the wide-ranging operation confessed that they were being sponsored with firearms, money and operational vehicles by Saraki and the then Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.
As a result, the police invited Saraki to the Force Intelligence Response Team office at Guzape, Abuja, so he could “answer allegations indicting him from confessions of five gang leaders”. However, Saraki was later informed a written explanation would suffice.
However, Daily Trust reports on Thursday that during cross-examination at the resumed trial, Bada said while in detention, “the Abba Kyari-led IRT operatives promised them they would be freed if they named Saraki as their sponsor.”
“After I was shot, my health started deteriorating. DCP Abba Kyari brought some nurses to treat me. Before I was eventually released, the police officers gave me conditions that I must not grant any press interview, I must not go to court and that I should quit politics,” he stated.
He added that Officer Adele also said, “You these Kwara boys, we will show you shege. I was hanged and I told them I can’t lie even if I would die.
“They also said we were the boys Saraki used to hijack the APC congress then in Kwara adding that ‘We will take Kwara from your leader.”
However, Justice Haleemah Salman adjourned the case to January 16 to 18, 2023, to allow for the continuation of cross-examination by the prosecution and trial.
