Claims that former Senate President Bukola Saraki was exonerated in the April 2018 Offa bank robbery are false, the Kwara State Government said Monday, insisting a 2018 federal legal advice only called for deeper investigation.
Ibraheem Abdullateef, a senior aide to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, said the Director of Public Prosecutions report cited by Saraki did not clear him but recommended “further and more thorough investigation” into his alleged role.
The clash comes after the state filed fresh 20-count charges against Saraki and former Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed over the robbery that left 33 people dead, including police officers and civilians.
Saraki had dismissed the new charges as “frivolous” and “politically motivated,” saying they were meant to embarrass him amid a PDP resurgence in Kwara. He quoted the 2018 OAGF report: “This office is unable to establish from the evidence in the interim report a nexus between the alleged offence and the suspects.”
But Abdullateef said that line was being used out of context. The same report, he noted, asked investigators to probe whether weapons used in the attack were supplied by Saraki or Ahmed, and to explore “any other area” that may establish “a prima facie case of aiding and abetting crime, or accessory after the fact.”
“The report advised further investigation. It was not a final legal conclusion,” Abdullateef said in a statement. “A DPP report is not binding and does not stop the state from filing charges.”
He added that the OAGF had recommended transferring the case file to the Kwara Attorney General for further investigation and possible prosecution. The report also advised that Olalekan, a former aide to Ahmed, be charged for illegal possession of firearms, while clearing one Abdulwahab for lack of evidence.
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The fresh charges follow the Court of Appeal’s January 30, 2026 decision upholding death sentences for gang members convicted in the robbery. Abdullateef said that judgment renewed calls from victims’ families and stakeholders for alleged accomplices to face trial.
The April 5, 2018 attack on banks in Offa was one of Nigeria’s deadliest robberies. Gunmen killed police officers at the station before raiding several banks, stealing cash and leaving 33 dead.
Saraki maintains the renewed case is political. The Kwara Government says it is about unresolved questions the 2018 report left open.
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