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Defence counsel in the April 5, 2018 Offa bank robbery, Mathias Emelibe, on Friday prayed a Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin to order the exhumation of the corpse of a principal suspect in the robbery incident, Michael Adikwu, who allegedly died in police custody in Abuja.
This, he said, would determine whether the cause of Adikwu’s death was natural or otherwise.
Emeribe while addressing the court during a trial within trial in the case said attempts by the prosecution to impress it on the court that there were only five suspects in the case amounted to suppression of facts.
He recalled that when the case first came up in the court in October 2018, six suspects were listed on the charge sheet, including Adikwu, who the police later claimed died in their custody.
Five defendants, Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salahudeen Azeez and Niyi Ogundiran, are facing five counts of conspiracy, armed robbery, murder, culpable homicide and illegal possession of arms and ammunition.
They were all present in court when their trial resumed on Friday.
While testifying before the court, Azeez told the court how six suspects were killed in his presence by the policemen in Abuja.
He said that the policemen interrogating him did that purposely to coerce him to admit his alleged participation in the bank robbery attacks in Offa, where about 33 people, including nine policemen were reportedly killed.
Azeez stated: “One Inspector Hassan directed Officer Vincent to bring five people from somewhere.
“They asked me to watch what they would do to the five persons and that they would do same to me if I don’t cooperate with them.
“They killed the five persons in my presence.
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“They also shot Akinnibosun, Adeola and Ogunleye in the legs in my presence.
“They threatened to kill me but I started begging that I didn’t do anything wrong.
“They said Ogunleye and I robbed at Offa and I denied it but they insisted.
“They beat me mercilessly inside a generator house, otherwise called theatre.
“It’s a lie that they interrogated me in a conducive environment.
“On the second day, I was brought out again from the cell.
“They showed a man to me and asked me whether I know him. The man is Michael Adikwu. I said I don’t know him.
“They also asked him whether he knows me but he replied no. They killed him in my presence.
[Punch]
