Amid the growing wave of kidnappings and killings across Kwara State, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has shifted blame to former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, linking the 2018 Offa bank robbery — which claimed 33 lives — to the state’s current security challenges that have reportedly left over 100 people dead.
Facing increasing criticisms over his government’s handling of the worsening insecurity, Governor AbdulRazaq on Thursday sought to redirect public attention toward Saraki and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Speaking to journalists in Oke-Ode, the Governor accused Saraki of hypocrisy, saying the former Senate President must “first take responsibility” for the tragic 2018 Offa robbery before questioning his (AbdulRazaq’s) competence in dealing with the present crisis.
The Governor’s remarks, which were captured in a viral video shared by the state government’s media handlers, have drawn mixed reactions.
According to AbdulRazaq, “It was under PDP. Let me put it in this context: Bukola Saraki bears a court statement and his own statement was that he is the leader of PDP in Kwara. Under his leadership, 33 people were killed in one day,” the Governor said.
He further alleged that the armed robbers behind the massacre were loyalists of Saraki.
“The boys that went there were his boys. They went with Aso Ebi of Saraki’s wedding to rob Offa. Not only that, they also went with vehicles bearing number plates marked ‘Saraki’,” AbdulRazaq claimed.
The Governor, who was reacting to fresh criticism from the PDP after its recent congress in Ilorin, insisted that Saraki and his party lacked the moral grounds to accuse him of incompetence in handling the state’s worsening security crisis.
“Thank God the culprits have been sentenced to death now. Saraki himself is in court because the families of Offa victims have taken him to court. So PDP should go and answer that case in court before talking about security in Kwara,” AbdulRazaq added.
The comments are already generating controversy across Kwara, where residents continue to decry government’s slow response to bandit attacks, kidnappings, and killings.
However, residents say the Governor’s attempt to weaponise the Offa robbery saga against Saraki only underscores his lack of concrete solutions to the insecurity ravaging the state.
Meanwhile, in September 2024, SaharaReporters reported that a Kwara State High Court sentenced the five suspects involved in the Offa robbery case to death by hanging.
This was pronounced by the court after it was satisfied that the prosecution had successfully proved its case against the defendants.
The defendants were convicted by Justice Haleema Salman on three count charges: illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, conspiracy to commit armed robbery and conspiracy to commit culpable homicide punishable by death.
SaharaReporters learned that the court allowed the convicts to take the plea of allocutus (Plea of mercy) but eventually sentenced all of them to death by hanging.
“The five of you shall be hanged on your neck until you are dead to serve as a lesson to others,” the presiding judge stated in her ruling.
In April 2018, some daredevil robbers stormed Offa town of Kwara State and robbed at least five commercial banks in the ancient town.
Many people, including nine policemen, were killed in the incident which involved the stealing of an undisclosed sum of money from the banks.
The convicted suspects are; Ayoade Akinnibosun, Azeez Salahudeen, Niyi Ogundiran, Ibikunle Ogunleye, and Adeola Abraham.
SaharaReporters previously exposed how Governor AbdulRazaq’s aides attempted to downplay insecurity by circulating old photographs of Nigerian Air Force strikes in Borno State and passing them off as fresh operations in Kwara.
On September 22, the Governor’s aide, Olayinka Fafoluyi (aka Solace), shared images of airstrikes on his Facebook page, claiming they were deterrence operations against bandits in Oke-Ode. A fact-check traced the pictures to Operation HADIN KAI in Borno on October 25, 2024.
Residents had dismissed the spin as insensitive, given the wave of killings that claimed at least 12 vigilantes and the Baale of Ogbayo during a dawn raid in Oke-Ode.
From Oke-Ode to Patigi, villagers continue to flee en masse amid repeated raids. In Essanti, two sons of a youth leader were abducted in daylight, with kidnappers boasting that the move would “reduce the need for night invasions.”
In Marri village, assailants struck under heavy rainfall, killing one, injuring another, and carting away motorcycles before soldiers intervened.
