There Are Compelling Reasons For Commenting On Security Situation In Kwara…My Innocence, Nonconnection With Offa Bank Robbery Already Established-Saraki

Former Senate President, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki submitted on Saturday that there are compelling reasons for commenting on the security situation in Kwara State while noting that it is unreasonable to make reference to the 2018 Offa dacoity and seek to present it as a possible justification for the current security fears in the state.

Dr Bukola Saraki, an indigene of Ilorin, served as governor of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011, and also represented Kwara Central in the senate from 2011 to 2019.

The former Senate President has also accused Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of making false, defamatory, and irresponsible insinuations about him in respect of the sad event that happened in Offa seven years ago.

The governor, Saraki added, made the comments during his sympathy visit to Oke-Ode, Ifelodun local government during the week.

‘The attention of the Abubakar Bukola Saraki Media Office has been drawn to the video clip of the statement made by Kwara State governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq during his belated visit to Oke Ode where bandits recently killed 21 innocent persons in another episode in the series of violent attacks that have become daily occurrences across the Kwara South and North Senatorial Districts.

In a reckless manner that put on display his usual clueless and weird way of responding to issues, Abdulrazaq equated the frequent attack by bandits ravaging two of the three senatorial districts in the state with the Offa robbery incident and made false, defamatory, and irresponsible insinuations about former Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki concerning the sad event that happened seven years ago.

Our view is that it is either insensitivity or a lack of capacity to appreciate and process issues that will make a governor equate the widespread killing, kidnapping, and maiming of people across two out of the three senatorial districts with a robbery incident. The state of insecurity has forced residents of over 50 communities in the two senatorial districts to abandon their homesteads and relocate to Ilorin or leave the state entirely.

The governor resorting to throwing tantrums and blackmail over an unrelated incident that has nothing to do with the former Senate President after Dr. Saraki called his attention and the entire government to the widespread violence against the people and called for action from federal agencies amounted to dereliction of duty, lack of valid appreciation of the plight of the people, and total disregard for the safety of the people’ Mr  Yusuph Olaniyonu, who is the Head of Abubakar Bukola Saraki Media Office, submitted in a statement he issued in Abuja and made available to Team@orientactualmags.com on Saturday.

The statement also claimed that Dr Saraki’s comments on the security situation in the state had made the governor spur to action and pay a sympathy visit to Oke Ode.

Accusing the governor of inaction, Dr Saraki said he (Abdulrazaq) waited for five days before visiting the affected town while he had the time to junket to another state outside his zone to celebrate with another governor in faraway Imo State, who was inaugurating projects for the benefit of his people.

‘Now that he has been compelled to visit Oke Ode to ‘assess the situation on the ground’, we would like to know when he will visit other local government areas in the state like Edu, Patigi, Isin, Irepodun, Oke Ero, and other towns in Ifelodun that have been witnessing incessant attacks by the bandits’ the statement said.

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While alleging that security council meetings have not been regular, Dr Saraki also suggested ways to tackle the security challenges by advising the governor to expand the membership of the Security Council to include all first and second class traditional rulers so as to engage them in fighting the menace, adding that ‘If he fails to tackle the crisis squarely, it will define his eight years in office and this will be a horrible legacy to bequeath to his successor’.

The former Senate President also noted that he had compelling reasons for commenting on the security situation in the state like other prominent Nigerians had done while adding that he considered the governor’s reaction shocking.

 ‘He made reckless insinuations against Dr. Saraki because the former Senate President called him out on his failure to do his job, we wonder what he would do to the governors of the Southwest states who were reported in yesterday’s edition of the Punch Newspaper to have ‘Tighten Borders Amid Banditry Surge in Kwara’. We also expect Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to descend on the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Abimbola Akeem Owoade who has expressed concern over the recent killings in Oke Ode.

Dr. Saraki is not interested in bandying words with the Kwara State governor. His call is meant to get the governor to show more empathy for the plight of the people and live up to his responsibility as the state’s chief security officer. It is obvious that never in the history of Kwara State has the State of Harmony witnessed this level of insecurity which is also being fueled by the insensitivity of the government of the day.

Like Dr. Saraki stated in his speech in Ilorin on September 27, 2025, we challenge anybody who has a contrary claim that there was any time in the past that Kwara State had been this unsafe and confronted by the threat to lives and property at this level to come up with the evidence’ the statement said.

Dr Bukola Saraki also clarified and asserted that his innocence and nonconnection with the Offa dacoity had been established since 2018.

‘Now to the Offa robbery case which the governor brought up in the video under reference. The Abubakar Bukola Saraki Media Office would like to put on record for the benefit of the members of the public that Dr. Saraki has nothing to do with the Offa robbery incident. This is a fact known to the powers that be then. It was also confirmed by the legal machinery of the federal government despite their hostility to the person and office that Dr. Saraki occupied at the time.

In two separate reports dated 22nd June, 2018, and 23rd August, 2018, respectively, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) of the Federation, in the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed U. E. stated that there was no evidence directly or indirectly linking Dr. Saraki to the Offa robbery’ the statement said.

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The Abubakar Bukola Saraki Media Office also urged Governor Abdulrazaq to stop politicizing the unfortunate plight of the victims of the Offa robbery and their families while alleging that the governor had made unsuccessful efforts to use some family members of the deceased victims to embarrass Dr Saraki.

‘In the video clip under reference, Abdulrazaq gave himself out on his dubious move that we have known all the while. We knew that he had induced some family members of victims of the Offa robbery to file a civil case in court against the state government, himself as governor, and join Dr. Saraki as a party as a way of further embarrassing the former Senate President.

The fact is not lost on us that the lawyer defending the aide of the governor, Michael Yinka Fafoluyi in a libel case filed by Dr. Saraki is also the same lawyer who has been briefed to handle the case filed on behalf of the so-called selected families of Offa robbery victims.

We also call the attention of members of the public to the press conference by some members of the Offa community under the platform of ‘Offa Koya, Offa Kowosi’ where they distanced the community from the dirty politics of using an unfortunate robbery incident as a tool of blackmail and smear campaign.

Again, some members of the families of the victims of the Offa robbery represented by Alhaji Abdul Oseni Aditu Eniolohunopa, Hajia Mulikat Jimoh, and Mrs. Danjuma Comfort on August 17, 2025, spoke during a programme on TNT Radio, Offa, where they publicly dissociated themselves from the malicious case in court and warned politicians to ‘stop seeking to score cheap political points at the expense of their grief’ the statement added-Team@orientactualmags.com  Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08035023079,  08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com.  Thank you