How I Was Tortured, Asked To Implicate Saraki – Offa Robbery Suspect

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The trial within trial of the five suspects involved in the Offa bank robbery in April 2018 continued on Friday at the State High Court sitting in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.

During their
arraignment before Justice Halimah Salman, the suspects told the court
how their confessional statements were obtained by the police.

The
first suspect, Ayoade Akinnibosun, in his testimony, told the trial
judge that he gave his statement under duress and not voluntarily.

He
explained that he was tortured and shot in two legs, alleging that the
police asked him to implicate the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, but
he refused.

Akinnibosun claimed that five men were shot dead in
his presence and that of other suspects, in order to force them to do
the bidding of the police.

He alleged that he was forced to sleep on the spot where the men were killed, adding that his hands and legs were tied for days.

The
suspect also told the trial judge that six hefty stones were placed on
his back and denied food for nearly one week while he was being
tortured.

He said they were kept inside the generator room at
Police Headquarters Abuja while a dismissed police officer, identified
as Michael Adiukwu, was brought to identify them if they were part of
the robbery gang.

According to Akinnibosun, the man denied knowing them and was shot dead on the spot.

Afterwards,
he said he was shown an already written statement which he was asked to
sign and agreed to do so for fear of being killed.

The suspect
insisted that whatever he said during the parade of the press conference
was written for him to memorise and confess to the public.

He claimed that the police warned him not to implicate them that the statement was made under duress.

Akinnibosun
told the trial judge that he was given a four-page statement to sign
but he could not because his fingers were not functioning due to
torture.

He said one of his fingers was placed on the documents
for thumb printing and his request to read and go through the statement
was turned down.

After giving his testimony, the suspect was cross-examined by the prosecution counsel.

Meanwhile,
the defence counsel, Mathias Emeribe, asked for further medical checkup
to determine if the wounds Akinnibosun sustained were truly from
gunshots.

Justice Salman, however, turned down the request until proper trial.

The
second accused, Ibikunle Ogunleye, was thereafter called to the dock
and he corroborated the first accused, Akinnibosun’s testimony of how he
was tortured and how Michael Adiukwu was killed.

In his
testimony, the third accused person Abraham Adeola also repeated the
same process of how they were tortured both at the Federal Special
Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS) office in Ilorin and Abuja.

Source:- ChannelsTv

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