CSOs ask police to produce ‘missing’ Offa robbery suspect

A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has asked the Nigeria police force to produce Michael Adikwu, one of the arrested suspects in the Offa robbery incident.

Adikwu, who reportedly led the gang in the incident which occurred on April 5, 2018, is said to be missing.

Thirty-three people, including pregnant women and 12 police officers, were killed in the attack.

TheCable had reported that the fate of Adikwu — who confessed to have killed several policemen as a revenge for his “unfair” dismissal from the force — has become a subject of speculation.

At some point, he was not paraded alongside the other arrested suspects, and his name was also removed from the list of suspects in a statement from the police.

Rumours have it that he was shot dead while in custody in order to coerce confessions from other suspects.

In a petition on Monday, the CSOs asked the police to immediately produce Adikwu, or be “dragged” to the International Criminal Court.

“If he (Adikwu) has been killed, the police should come clean and name his executors, this is in keeping with the Freedom of Information Act (FOI),” the petition signed by Collins Abu on behalf of the coalition read.

“We demand an immediate investigation into the disappearance of this suspect, and we ask respected international human rights organisations to call on the Nigerian government and the police to produce him.”

The CSOs also demanded an independent probe of the Offa robbery “because the police appear compromised”.

“Failure to produce him, we will petition the International Criminal Court and also petition all embassies with evidence so as to revoke visas of the IGP and other human rights violators,” they said.

Jimoh Moshood, police spokesman, had denied that the suspect was killed in custody.

“Who killed him?” he had asked in response to inquiries by TheCable, adding: “We will parade him soon, once they recover all the weapons.”