Appeal court upholds death sentence for five Offa bank robbery convicts

The court of appeal in Ilorin, Kwara state, has upheld the death sentence of the five-armed robbers who raided l banks in Offa in 2018.

The appellate court on Friday rejected all the grounds of appeal of the armed robbers against the 2024 judgement of the high court in Kwara.

According to NAN, the three-member panel of the appeal court upheld the judgement of the lower court and ordered the return of the convicts to prison.

The convicts are Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salahudeen Azeez and Niyi Ogundiran.

On April 5, 2018, multiple banks were raided and a police station was attacked in Offa, a town in Kwara state, resulting in 33 fatalities, including a pregnant woman and 12 police officers

In September 2024, a high court in Kwara found the convicts guilty of illegal possession of firearms, armed robbery, and culpable homicide.

Haleema Salman, the presiding judge, sentenced the five of them to death.

During the trial, Akinnibosun, who claimed to be the ringleader, narrated how the late Michael Adikwu, a dismissed police officer, sold the robbery idea to him.

The ringleader added that he, in turn, recruited four other accomplices to carry out the robbery, adding that the two vehicles used during the incident belonged to him.

Akinnibosun told the court that he killed two people who were trying to escape — at the entrance of a police station.