Linking me up with Offa robbery meant to embarrass me says Saraki

The President of the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, says the plot by the police to link him with the April 5 Offa robbery is meant to embarrass him.

Saraki said this in a statement issued in Abuja signed by his Special Adviser Media and Publicity, Mr Yusuph Olaniyonu.

The police spokesman, Moshood Jimoh said on Sunday in Abuja that they had invited Saraki to come and explain allegations of complicity in the recent attacks by suspected armed robbers on some banks in Offa.

He said more than 30 people, including nine policemen and a pregnant woman, were killed during the attack.

Jimoh said five of the suspects arrested had claimed that they were thugs working for Saraki and Kwara governor Abdulfatai Ahmed.

“I will want the entire public to disregard this claim as a baseless allegation and another ploy by the Police to implicate him by all means.

“Let it be known that there is no way I could have been associated with armed robbery against my people, he said.

He recalled that when the incident happened, he was the first top public official to pay a visit to the place.

He said he had, during a visit palace of the traditional ruler, put a call to the InspectorGeneral of Police, Ibrahim Idris, requesting him to make certain specific security arrangements as demanded by the people.

“Members of the public will remember that on May 16, 2018, I alerted the Senate about the information passed on to me by my State Governor, Dr. Abdulfatai Ahmed, over a plot by the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to frame me up by getting some suspected cultists arrested in Ilorin to implicate me.

“It is believed that the timely leakage of the plot in that case aborted the use of the suspected cultists to implicate me. Now, it is the Offa bank robbery suspects that are about to be used.

“Like the earlier one, this frame-up will also fail as I hereby state categorically that I have no link with any band of criminals,” Saraki said.

He said he was ready to honour the police’s invitation whenever it wss extended to him.

“As a person, who has utmost respect for the Rule of Law and all constitutional institutions, when the invitation from the Police is formally extended to me, I will be ready to honour it without any delay.

“It is however sad that this abuse of the criminal investigation process aimed at intimidating and over-awing the legislature, thereby obstructing it from doing its work, is a big threat to our democracy,” Saraki said.