Former Senate President Bukola Saraki has accused the Kwara State Government of abusing the judicial process in the 2018 Offa bank robbery.
Naija News reports that Saraki, in a statement on Monday by his media aide, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said the government amended its charges after dropping 18 armed robbery-related charges against him and former Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.
He described the withdrawal as an admission that the allegations against the former governors were false, insisting that the amended charges would also fail in court.
The former Senate President said the state government had dropped 18 of the 20 counts in the original charge sheet, including allegations of armed robbery, causing the deaths of police officers and illegal possession of firearms.
The statement said the government retained two charges, which alleged that Saraki and Ahmed conspired to belong to a gang of thieves and actually belonged to such a gang, as well as allegations relating to concealing or causing the disappearance of a vehicle allegedly used for illegal purposes.
The media office said the government had previously attempted to arraign the two former governors on the charges but later amended the case.
Reacting to the withdrawal, Saraki’s media office said, “Both charges and 16 others with such ridiculous claims were dropped obviously because the government saw through the futility of the attempts to rope in Saraki and Ahmed and the fact that the charges lack any credible or factual basis.”
It added, “The amendment to the charge sheet only reveals that there was no case against these gentlemen from the beginning and what the state government is indulging in is abuse of powers, a travesty of the justice system, and mockery of the prosecutorial powers of the state.”
The media office also accused Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq’s administration of using the case to tarnish the reputations of his predecessors ahead of the 2027 elections.
It further alleged that the state government had spent close to ₦100m advertising its claims against the former governors in national newspapers earlier in the year.
The statement described the expenditure as a waste of public funds, alleging that the money could have been used for public projects.
It maintained that Saraki’s lawyers would challenge the remaining charges in court.
“We want to further reiterate our assurances to members of the public, particularly supporters of Dr Saraki, that he remains unperturbed by the machinations of the Kwara State Government and that just as the earlier charge sheet collapsed like a badly arranged pack of cards, the amended charge will also fail in court because they are claims that cannot withstand the slightest judicial scrutiny,” the statement said.
