Offa robbery: Saraki accuses Kwara govt of political persecution

Former Senate President Bukola Saraki has accused the Kwara State Government of abusing prosecutorial powers after withdrawing 18 of the 20 charges filed against him and former Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed over the 2018 Offa bank robbery.

Saraki said the decision to drop the charges, including allegations of armed robbery and culpable homicide, showed that the government had no credible evidence linking them to the incident.

His position was contained in a statement issued on Monday by Yusuph Olaniyonu of the Abubakar Bukola Saraki Media Office in Abuja.

The former Senate President alleged that the state government had used the case to tarnish his reputation and that of Ahmed for political reasons ahead of the 2027 general elections.

According to the statement, the government dropped 18 counts in the original 20-count charge, retaining two allegations relating to conspiracy to belong to a gang of thieves and membership of the gang, as well as concealing or causing the disappearance of a vehicle allegedly used for illegal purposes.

The withdrawn charges included allegations that Saraki, Ahmed and others conspired to carry out armed robberies at branches of Guarantee Trust Bank, First Bank, Ecobank and Union Bank in Offa on April 5, 2018.

Another count accused them of robbing a Zenith Bank branch while armed with guns and explosives.

Reacting to the development, Saraki’s media office said the withdrawal demonstrated the weakness of the allegations.

“Both charges and 16 others with such ridiculous claims were dropped obviously because the government saw through the futility of the attempts to rope in Saraki and Ahmed and the fact that the charges lack any credible or factual basis,” the statement said.

It accused Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq’s administration of turning the judicial process into a political tool, describing the prosecution as an abuse of power and a mockery of the justice system.

The media office also alleged that the state government spent close to N100m advertising its allegations against the former governors in national newspapers earlier in the year.

It described the expenditure as a waste of public funds that could have been channelled into development projects.

The statement further linked the amended charges to Saraki’s political activities in Kwara South, noting that the development occurred while he was visiting Offa and other communities to campaign for Peoples Democratic Party candidates ahead of the 2027 elections.

Saraki’s media office, however, said his lawyers would challenge the remaining charges in court, expressing confidence that they would also collapse.

The Offa bank robbery occurred on April 5, 2018, when armed men attacked several banks in the Kwara community, killing police officers and other residents.

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Following the incident, police invited Saraki for questioning after some arrested suspects allegedly implicated him. He denied any involvement, describing the allegations as an attempt to frame him.

The allegations resurfaced in April 2026 when the Kwara State Government filed a fresh 20-count charge against Saraki, Ahmed and two former aides, Yusuf Abdulwahab and Alabi Olalekan.

The charges included criminal conspiracy, armed robbery and culpable homicide.

Saraki rejected the allegations, citing two legal opinions issued by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation in June and August 2018, which he said found no evidence linking him to the robbery.

He subsequently accused the Abdulrazaq administration of using the case to politically embarrass him.