Offa bank robbery judgment splits community

The recent judgment of the Kwara State High Court on the Offa banks robbery has divided the community.

Justice Haleema Saliman, after a six-year trial, sentenced the remaining five suspects to death by hanging last week.

They are Ayoade Akinnibosun, Azeez Salahudeen, Niyi Ogundiran, Ibikunle Ogunleye, and Adeola Abraham.

On Thursday, the home branch of the Offa Descendants’ Union (ODU) called on the Kwara state government to revisit the incident.

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Addressing journalists in Offa, the chairman of the union, Chief Tajudeen Lanre Shittu, said though the community welcomed the judgement, it expressed reservations ‘that many questions have not been answered’.

They called on the state government to expedite action on the execution of the judgement.

‘There is the need for a holistic probing of all the factors, notions and personalities, so as to remove the public impression that the Nigeria Police investigation on the incident is incomplete and certain individuals are being covered up.

“The community is unsatisfied with how the police command handled the investigation and expressed reservations. Those who supplied the vehicle used for the robbery and all those mentioned during the course of trial should be investigated”.

But in a statement last night, some ‘leaders of thought and indigenes under the aegis of Offa Koya, Offa Kowosi, dismissed the position of the home branch, adding that it was politically motivated 

They accused the ODU home branch chairman of using the community’s name for cheap politics.

When contacted last night, the national secretary of national branch of the ODU, Mrs Wosilat McCarthy, said Shittu cannot be speaking for the ODU.