- The Kwara state Police Command were reportedly able to arrest the Offa robbery suspects through stolen phones from the operation which were given to their girlfriends
- Some officers were also accused of receiving bribe from the suspects after the operator of the hotel they had lodged in, reported their suspicious presence to the DPO
- The presiding magistrate, Mrs M.B. Folorunsho has adjourned the case till May 3 for further hearing
12 suspects arrested in connection with the Offa bank robbery who are currently being interrogated by the police, were apprehended via tracking of mobile phones which they collected from victims, Vanguard reports.
The stolen phones were given to their girlfriends, after they had carried out the robbery operation.
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NAIJ.com gathers that the interrogation of the girlfriends was what led to the arrest of the suspects in Abeokuta, Lagos and Ibadan. Before carrying out that operation, the suspects were also discovered to have been in and out of jail.
The proprietor of the hotel where the bandits lodged after the operation, also assisted security operatives with tracking them down; as he reportedly informed the divisional police officer in the town about certain incriminating materials which were found with the suspects when they checked in.
After receiving the intelligence report, officers were immediately dispatched to the hotel. According to an eyewitness, the bandits negotiated with the officers when they arrived the scene, even offering them N400,000.
The source further stated that upon their return to the station, the policemen informed the DPO and DCO that the suspects were not armed robbers but Yahoo Yahoo boys.
The source stated: “It was not surprising that the robbers visited the police station the following day and killed about nine policemen in retaliation for collecting N400,000 from them.”
Although the hotelier had been docked for conspiracy, he reportedly challenged the DPO and DCO to deny if he had not informed the police that the bandits had lodged in his hotel before they carried out the gruesome operation.
Also arraigned alongside the hotelier was a club house operator at the hotel, the accountant, a receptionist and room keeper.
The case was adjourned till May 3 for further hearing by the magistrate, Mrs M.B. Folorunso.
In response the hotelier’s challenge, the spokesman of the Kwara state Police Command, Ajayi Okasanmi reportedly stated: “If the hotelier actually gave the Police information about the suspects in his hotel, why didn’t he deny them lodging? To me, it is an afterthought.”
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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that after a deadly robbery attack on banks in Offa that led to the death of over fifty people, the inspector general of police, Ibrahim Idris, ordered the transfer of the Kwara state police commissioner, Lawan Ado to Kaduna state.
Ado was transferred to the Police College in Kaduna while Aminu Pai Saleh was announced as the new commissioner of police in Kwara state.
Offa bank robbery - The untold story (NAIJ EXCLUSIVE) - on NAIJ.com TV:
Source: Naija.ng
