However,
when the Police paraded the suspects the same day, Adiku and Opadokun were
missing, sparking fears that something untoward had happened. The fears
thickened on Wednesday, when Moshood addressed journalists and the two names
went missing on the list of arrested suspects and gang leaders.
There are
growing concerns over the whereabouts of Michael Adikwu and Kayode Opadokun,
two of the arrowheads of the Offa bank robbery.
In a press
statement on Sunday to update the public with details of the investigation into
the robbery and the invitation to Senate President Bukola Saraki to explain his
alleged links to the gang, Jimoh Moshood, Force Public Relations Officer (PRO),
had listed Kayode Opadokun, “male, 35 years, principal suspect” and “Michael
Adikwu, male, 30 years, sectional gang leader, killed 22 persons, mostly at the
police station” among the 22 suspects arrested so far.
However,
when the Police paraded the suspects the same day, Adiku and Opadokun were
missing, sparking fears that something untoward had happened. The fears
thickened on Wednesday, when Moshood addressed journalists and the two names
went missing on the list of arrested suspects and gang leaders.
The big fear
is that both suspects, Adikwu especially, might have been extra-judicially
murdered.
Information
released earlier by the Police on Adikwu stated: “Michael Adikwu, is a native
of Apa LGA of Benue State, a dismissed police CPL (corporal) who was arrested,
tried and dismissed from the force and charged to court by the police in 2012
in Kwara State for criminal conspiracy and aiding the escape from lawful
custody of armed robbery suspects.
“He served
three years in prison and subsequently found his way out in 2015. He became a
vicious and notorious gang leader of armed robbery syndicate wanted for several
armed robberies in Kwara and other states of the north-central and south-west.”
Adikwu,
though, gave Daily Trust a contrasting account of his stay in the Police,
although he did admit that he had developed a thick hatred for the Police.
“I was
formerly working with the Kwara State Police Command, Special Anti-Robbery
Squad (SARS),” he said.
“I was
dismissed for allowing detained suspected armed robbers to walk. It was not my
fault; it was a gang-up against me. Go and ask, I was one of the finest
policemen at SARS, Kwara State Command. I undertake most of the difficult
tasks. But for just one mistake, which was not my fault, I got kicked out of
the force. I was not given fair-hearing, so I now hate everything about the
police. The killing of the policemen (by him) was not a mistake, but quite
deliberate. I see them as all the same.”
His absence
at the last hearing has alerted the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria
(NOPRIN) — a network of 46 civil society organizations spread across Nigeria,
and committed to promoting police accountability and respect for human rights.
“NOPRIN
wishes to observe that the suspects paraded days ago in the Offa robbery
incident did not include the alleged chief armourer, a dismissed policeman
called Adikwu,” it said in a statement on Friday.
“The key
suspect who was interviewed by the press said the Adikwu provided the weapons
for the operation but he was not paraded. Similarly, Ayo Opadokun's son,
Kayode, who was arrested, was not also paraded.
“There are
emerging fears about the safety of these suspects who were not paraded. NOPRIN
calls on the police to ensure the safety of the Adikwu and Kayode. They should
be produced alive to have their day in court, to corroborate or rebut the
police narrative that it was Senate President Saraki who provided the weapons.
“NOPRIN
hereby calls on the police to publicly confirm the condition of these suspects.
The police should produce the two suspects in order to douse the suspicion that
they have been eliminated to cover up and to put fear in the other suspects
that they would similarly be eliminated if they don't cooperate by sticking
with the police narrative that it was Saraki who supplied them the weapons.”
SaharaReporters
attempted to reach Moshood for clarifications, but calls and a text message to
his telephone were not replied.
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