Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki has reacted to fresh criminal charges filed against him and several others by the Kwara State Government led by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.
The Kwara government had filed a 20-count charge at the High Court in Ilorin on April 9, 2026, linking Saraki, former governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, and other individuals to allegations connected to the 2018 Offa bank robbery incident.
Others named in the case include Yusuf Abdulwahab and Alabi Olalekan, along with several convicted suspects already found guilty in earlier proceedings.
According to the charge sheet, the accused were alleged to have conspired in April 2018 in Offa to carry out armed robbery attacks on multiple banks, including branches of GTBank, First Bank, Ecobank, Union Bank, and Zenith Bank.
The document also stated that weapons and explosives were used during the alleged operations.
Reacting in a statement on Friday, April 17, 2026, Saraki described the charges as baseless and politically motivated, stressing that the move was an attempt to embarrass him and damage his reputation.
He argued that the allegations were part of a long-running political plot dating back to the Buhari administration, claiming it was designed to weaken his political group ahead of the 2019 elections.
The former Senate president also said the matter had already been investigated by a police team from the Inspector-General of Police’s office.
He added that legal advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in 2018 found no evidence linking him directly or indirectly to the robbery case.
“Based on the DPP’s advice, four suspects were charged in court by the Kwara State Government. They were convicted at the trial court and the conviction was upheld by the appellate court. The matter is now before the Supreme Court,” the statement reads.
“Suddenly, the governor woke up after I granted my interview to Channels TV where I commented on the insecurity in the state and thought he could resurrect these baseless charges against his two predecessors.
“I noticed that in his propaganda plan to circulate his frivolous charges and other skewed documents as paid advertisements in the national newspapers, even before serving the defendants, he intentionally hid the DPP reports and other documents which put a lie to the charade he is perpetuating.
“These are deliberate efforts to mislead the media and induce them to give purchased publicity to the frame-up.”
Saraki also alleged that attempts were made to involve families of victims in civil cases against him, but said the effort failed after they declined to participate.
“A sitting governor who is accusing his two immediate predecessors of armed robbery is only making a mockery of the institution. He is only taking the governorship of our dear state to the gutter,” he said.
“This is an example of dirty politics taken too far and too low. He ought to know that nobody at the national or state level is buying his claim. He is the butt of a crude joke.
“Many of those involved in the plot to blackmail me with the Offa robbery case have since faced the judgments of the law of karma. I do not doubt that this governor will end up the same way.
“One would have thought that a governor whose state has lost over 400 lives to banditry between January 2025 and March 2026, with over 100 others kidnapped in the worst cases of insecurity since its creation, would concentrate efforts and focus attention on taming the menace by getting the bandits arrested to face justice.”
ALSO READ: How Abba Kyari Offered Me N10m And Visa To Implicate Saraki – Offa Robbery Suspect
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