Issues surrounding the clearance of Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki of involvement in the 2018 Offa bank robbery has taken another twist as the Kwara State Government has filed a fresh 20-count charge against the former President of the Senate and ex-Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.
The Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice had cleared him of any complicity in the April 5, 2018 deadly robbery.
The robbery involved attacks on banks, a police station, and claimed no fewer than 31 lives.
The legal advice also cleared Ahmed, the then Kwara State governor, and his Chief of Staff, Yusuf Abdulwahab.
Documents sighted by The Eagle Online showed that the AGF’s office in 2018 found no evidence linking the trio to the crimes.
The legal advice, issued on June 22 and August 23, 2018 by the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation (DPPF), U. E. Mohammed, followed a police investigation into the incident.
In the documents addressed to the Inspector-General of Police, the DPPF stated that there was no evidence connecting Saraki to the crimes.
It said it was “unable to establish from the evidence… a nexus between the alleged offence and the suspects,” a position it maintained in a subsequent review, concluding that no prima facie case existed against him for charges including criminal conspiracy, armed robbery, and culpable homicide.
The DPPF instead identified six principal suspects, including Ayo Akinnibosun, against whom it found sufficient evidence to prosecute.
Those suspects were later tried and convicted.
The legal advice also found no collaborative evidence linking Abdulwahab to the robbery, while recommending a separate firearms charge against another aide.
According to the documents, the offences fell within the jurisdiction of the Kwara State High Court, prompting a directive that the case file be transferred to the state attorney-general for prosecution.
Interestingly, the legal advice from the office of the Attorney-General of the federation was given at a time Saraki was the de facto leader of the opposition in the country.
Although elected senator on the ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), he quickly fell into disaffection with the leadership of the party when he worked with opposition senators to defeat the favoured candidate of the ruling party in the race for the presidency of the Senate.
He later defected alongside many other senators and his followers in Kwara State, including Ahmed, to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where he made an unsuccessful bid to return to the Senate in 2019.
According to judgements delivered on the matter, the Kwara State High Court convicted the principal offenders after a protracted trial, a decision later upheld by the Court of Appeal sitting in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, in January 2026.
The appellate panel, led by Justice Ridwan Abdullahi, and including Justices Gabriel Kolawole and Abdul Dogo, affirmed the death sentences imposed on the convicts, holding that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
The court upheld the convictions of Akinnibosun, Niyi Ogundiran, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, and Salawu Azeez for armed robbery, illegal possession of firearms and culpable homicide.
The matter is now before the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the Kwara State Government, in a new development, filed a fresh 20-count charge against Saraki, Ahmed, and two others despite earlier findings and court decisions.
