“Offa’s Day of Horror! These bastards killed 33 people.” This was how Suraj Oyewale, a real estate investor and Kwara State indigene, recalled the 2018 Offa bank robbery that claimed the lives of many residents.

April 5, 2018, was indeed a day of horror: armed robbers attacked the divisional police headquarters and destroyed the police armoury, raided multiple banks with explosives, stole millions of naira and killed more than 30 people in Offa.

Six years later, on Thursday, Justice Haleemah Salman of the Kwara State High Court sentenced five convicts — Ayoade Akinnibosun, Azeez Salahudeen, Niyi Ogundiran, Ibikunle Ogunleye, and Adeola Abraham — to death by hanging in relation to the robbery.

READ ALSO: FLASHBACK: Day Waheed Ayilara, the Late Akwa Ibom CP, Donated Cups of Beans in Exchange for Backlash

REMEMBERING THE DAY OF HORROR

“They first went to [the] police station to kill all officers on duty, including civilians that were in [the] police station only to complain,” Oyewale wrote on X on Friday while commenting on a post on the convicted robbers’ death sentence.

Media reports from 2018 reveal that the financial institutions robbed in the incidents were First Bank, Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB), ECO Bank, Zenith Bank, Union Bank and Ibolo Micro Finance Bank.

The robbers killed nine police officers at Owode Division in Offa on that day. Then they made away with police arms and ammunition. A pregnant woman was also killed.

Within the first two days following the attack, the police had arrested seven suspects and by April 13, they had a total of 12 suspects in their custody.

During a parade in June of that year, the police had arrested 22 suspects, including the five convicts who were sentenced to death on Thursday. The five convicts were the gang leaders.

READ ALSO: Offa Poly Student Found Dead in Her Apartment

EX-SENATE PRESIDENT FINGERED IN THE ROBBERY

In June 2018, the police asked the then Senate President Bukola Saraki to submit a written statement about what he knew of the incident after he was named a suspect in the robbery.

A police statement in 2018 read: “The five gang leaders further confessed during investigation that they are political thugs under the name Youth Liberation Movement a.k.a “Good Boys” admitted and confessed to have been sponsored with firearms, money and operational vehicles by the Senate President, Sen. Bukola Saraki and the Governor of Kwara State, Alh. Abdulfatah Ahmed.”

The gang leaders also disclosed that they had attended the ex-senate president’s daughter’s wedding before the incident.

In response to the allegation against him, Saraki had said it was baseless because there was no way he could have been associated with armed robbery against his people.

EX-POLICEMAN ARRESTED IN CONNECTION TO THE ROBBERY DIES IN POLICE CUSTODY

Michael Adikwu, a dismissed police constable, was one of the principal suspects involved in the Offa bank robbery. However, the police claimed he died in their custody without explaining the circumstances surrounding his death.

According to reports, Adikwu confessed to being the mastermind of the operation. He was supposed to be arraigned alongside the five convicts who were taken to court in November of that year.

However, in 2019, one of the convicted robbers said the police deliberately shot and killed Adikwu in their presence in order to force them to confess.

PROLONGED TRIAL OF THE FIVE ROBBERS

Before the recent conviction of the five robbers, many had expressed concerns about the prolonged court trial.

In 2021, Justice Salman revealed that it was the prosecution, not the court, causing delays in the trial of the suspects. The judge said the prosecution’s inability to produce its key witness in court was responsible for this.

Offa residents also protested the delayed trial in 2022 as they marched to the Government House in Ilorin to demand speedy administration of justice.