Saraki Lied Over N10m Succour To Offa Robbery Victims

BY SEGUN ADEBAYO, ABUJA – Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has taken a swipe at Senate President, Bukola Saraki over claims that he donated N10m to victims of the April 5, 2018 Offa bank robbery.

Maintaining that the claims ‘is patently false’, the Minister urged Senator Saraki “to stop dancing on the graves of the innocent souls” who died during the bloody robbery incident

In a statement issued on Monday in Lagos, Alhaji Mohammed said the Senate President did not donate a dime to the victims as claimed by recent interview carried on a Kwara radio

Saraki had, in the controversial radio interview, stated that he donated 10 million Naira when he visited Offa to commiserate with the people in the aftermath of the robbery.

The Senate President further said the amount was more than the seven million Naira reportedly stolen from the banks’ vaults during the robbery attack.

The Minister’s statement, which for the second time, warned the Senator to stop playing politics with the Offa multiple robbery attacks, said; “The claim by Dr. Saraki that he donated 10 million Naira to care for the victims of the Offa robbery is patently false.

“He did not! The 10 million he referred to was donated when the Offa market got burnt, and it was made in Ilorin, not Offa. When Dr Saraki visited Offa to commiserate with the community in the aftermath of the robbery, he did not donate a dime! I challenge him to prove me wrong.”

Coming on the heels of a previous statement on the controversial radio interview, Alhaji Mohammed said it was wrong and insensitive for anyone to play politics with the unfortunate incident.

He said the overly aggressive and crude response by Dr Saraki to the first warning has shown that he is not ready to heed the admonition, hence the need to re-state it, and to condemn any attempt to denominate human lives in Naira and Kobo.

Mohammed regretted that instead of taking heed to the warning, Saraki’s camp edited and hurriedly remove all references to the Offa robbery from the obviously embarrassing radio interview before re-airing it across Kwara state.

According to the Minister; “Instead of stopping at that, which in itself constitutes an acceptance of wrong-doing, Dr Saraki went ahead to hurl insults at me, even when I have been largely restrained in issuing my earlier warning. Had I not been restrained, I would have gone ahead to divulge what actually transpired.

“But with politics in the air, the truth becomes the first casualty. Realising that he goofed, Dr Bukola apparently caused the radio interview in question to be edited to remove the donation reference, and then re-aired. Is it not an irony that the people who engaged in this egregious act of dishonesty are the same ones calling others names?”

Alhaji Mohammed said no amount of efforts by the opposition will distract the APC that is determined to focus debate on the political developments in Kwara State on issues rather than exchange of personal insults.”

He further said; “The people of Kwara, who are bone-tired of the long years of ‘bolekaja’ governance in the state, are all saying in one voice, ‘O to ge’ (enough is enough), and will soon have the opportunity to express their frustration with their votes.”