Policemen attached to the Divisional Police Station in Offa, Kwara State have been accused of collecting N400,000 bribe from the robbers who hit five banks in the town, killing nine policemen and eight civilians in the process, Vanguard newspaper is reporting.
According to the report, the owner of Xontec Hotel on Igosun Road, Offa, where the suspects stayed before hitting the banks, Kadir Surajudeen, had reported to the police that there were suspicious people lodging there before the operation.
Surajudeen was said to have told the Divisional Police Officer of the discovery of some incriminating materials as the robbers checked into the hotel.
The DPO and the Divisional Crime Officer were said to have sent some officers to the hotel.
Vanguard said it learnt that instead of arresting the suspects, the policemen negotiated with them and were offered N400,000.
On their return to the station, they reportedly told the DPO and DCO that those Surajudeen reported were Yahoo boys and not robbers.
Vanguard quoted a source as having told it: “It was not surprising that the robbers visited the police station the following day and killed about nine policemen in retaliation for collecting N400,000 from them.”
Surajudeen, who has since been arraigned for harbouring the armed robbers alongside some of his state has challenged the DPO and DCO in Offa to deny if he did not informe them about the development.
In a related development, Vanguard said the robbers were arrested through the tracking of mobile phones the robbers collected from their victims.
Vanguard said it gathered that after the robbery operation, the suspects took away the handsets of the victims, which they later gave out to their girlfriends.
Officials of the robbed banks were also said to have given the Police all handsets found within their premises after the robbery.
Vanguard said the interrogation of the girlfriends with whom the phones were found led to the arrest of the suspects in Ibadan, Oyo State; Lagos State; and Abeokuta, Ogun State.
It said further checks revealed that the suspects had been in and out of jail several times.