Offa Robbery: ‘Disregard blackmail against Saraki’ – Families of victims beg Nigerians
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By Luminous Jannamike
ABUJA – The families of victims of the tragic Offa bank robbery have made a heartfelt appeal to Nigerians, urging them to disregard persistent claims linking former Senate President, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, to the incident.
They condemned what they described as the politicisation of their loss.
In a statement made available to journalists in Abuja, the families, represented by Alhaji Abdul Oseni Aditu Eniolohunpa, Hajia Mulikat Jimoh, and Mrs Danjuma Comfort, spoke on Radio TNT in Offa to address renewed debates surrounding the tragedy.
Alhaji Abdul, who lost his 27-year-old son in the robbery, Hajia Mulikat, the mother of one of the victims, and Mrs Danjuma, the wife of a slain police officer, stressed that their loved ones were victims of a criminal attack and appealed for an end to political exploitation of their grief.
The Offa bank robbery, which took place on April 5, 2018, saw heavily armed robbers attack several banks and a police station, leaving 33 people dead, including innocent citizens and security personnel.
Since then, the incident has remained a subject of political controversy, with some attempting to link it to prominent figures.
The families revealed they had previously been approached by individuals urging them to make public statements implicating Dr Saraki in the attack.
They rejected such attempts, insisting that their loved ones were victims of a violent crime and that it was unjust for anyone to exploit their tragedy for political ends.
The families also expressed disappointment over the lack of support or compensation from the government since the incident, noting that their priority remains justice and healing, not politics.
They appealed to Nigerians to focus on preventing similar tragedies in future rather than fuelling political debates.
“Our loved ones would not have wanted their deaths to be used as tools for political manipulation,” they said, calling on the public to honour the memory of the victims by refusing to allow their pain to be turned into a political weapon.
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