Offa Robbery: Police arrest ex-SARS officer, wanted suspects

Exactly four days after the Nigeria Police Force declared four kingpins that led the bloody Offa bank robbery wanted, operatives have arrested three of them.


The four suspects were declared wanted after the bank robberies of April 5. The faces of these kingpins were captured via CCTV in some of the banks they attacked.

The suspects robbed several banks, carted away millions and killed over 30 people, including nine policemen.

One of the kingpins, identified as Michael Adikwu, a police constable, who was tried and dismissed by police authorities, has been arrested.

Adikwu was arrested on Monday by operatives of the Inspector-General of Police, Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT) and later used as bait to catch two other kingpins.

Speaking on Adikwu, a police source disclosed: “He used to serve in the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Kwara State Police Command until he got involved in robbery. Investigations revealed that some armed robbers, who robbed and killed an innocent citizen were arrested.

Adikwu, then a constable, collected money from them and released them. He was subsequently arrested, tried and dismissed. He was charged to court together with the re-arrested armed robbers. He served three years in prison. How he came out of prison is still a mystery.”

The source further disclosed that Adikwu after leaving prison, went into crime full time. He met other armed robbers, became friends with them and formed gang.

The suspect was also said to have made some criminal friends in the prison. When those came out, they also joined in the new gang.

Another police source stated: “After we released the Offa bank robbers’ pictures, we started getting many leads. We arrested Adikwu in Kwara State on Monday. His confessions also led to the arrest of two more suspects.”

Source