Six months after the Offa bank robberies, the police have failed to arraign the 27 suspects arrested in connection with the incident in which 33 persons, including nine policemen, were shot dead.

The police had paraded about 15 suspects in Abuja in connection with the April 5, 2018 robbery attacks, with a promise to arraign them in court, but this had yet to be done.

The delayed prosecution one of the suspects, and Personal Assistant to the Kwara State Governor, Lekan Alabi, to challenge his continued detention at a Kwara State High Court in July.

The court, which was presided over by Justice Adebayo Yusuf, had on July 27, 2018 summoned the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to appear before it in August to explain the reason behind the continued detention of  Alabi.

Alabi had been in detention since May 28, over the bank robberies.

Alabi’s counsel,  Mr. Adelodun Ibrahim (SAN), who led four other lawyers informed the court that the non-arraignment of Alabi  was in contravention of the provisions of Order 4, Rules 3 and 4 of the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules (2009) as well as Sections 34, 35, 36, 37, 41 And 46 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The Force had also linked the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to the robberies, stating that their investigation showed that all the five gang leaders namely; Ayoade Akinibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salawudeen Azeez and Niyi Ogundiran, had direct connection to him.

Subsequently, Saraki was invited for interrogation over his alleged links to the gangsters, but the Senate President snubbed the summons and instead wrote a letter denying his involvement in the bank robberies.

The police threatened to compel him to appear at the Force Intelligence Response Team office in Guzape,  Abuja and later directed a team of policemen to interrogate him in his office at the National Assembly on July 26.

Commenting on the delayed prosecution of the robbery suspects, a human rights lawyer, Mrs. Ifeoma Iheanacho, said it was wrong for the police to detain suspects for over 24 hours without arraignment.

She noted that the police should have carried out a proper investigation before carrying out arrests, adding that this would help the administration of criminal justice in the country.

Iheanacho, who is the Publicity Secretary, International Federation of Women Lawyers said, “We have many awaiting trial inmates in prisons and many of them have been held in prisons indefinitely.

“One of the purposes of Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, is to ensure that such things do not happen. Where we have suspects being detained for over six months, it means something is wrong.”

“When an officer arrests somebody and he feels the crime is a capital offence in accordance with Section 30 of ACJA, what he should do is to refer the case to the Attorney-General of the Federation for advice and if that advice is not forthcoming, the families of the detainees could approach the court to summon the AGF over the continued incarceration of the suspects,” the activist stated.

The police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, attributed the delay in trial of the suspects to “the overwhelming evidence the police have against the suspects.”

He stated that the police were carrying out a proper investigation, noting that the suspects would be arraigned soon. He declined to give a time limit for the probe.

Meanwhile, the Police Service Commission has pledged to work with the Nigerian Office of Amnesty International to drastically reduce cases of human rights abuses in the country.

The Chairman of the Commission, Alhaji Musiliu Smith, told a delegation from AI that his agency had already started work on human rights abuses by policemen.

He requested that the human rights group should carry the PSC along in its findings before releasing its reports. – Punch

– Oct. 6, 2018 @ 12:25 GMT |