I thought I had read the most prosaic questions ever asked until last Tuesday when the Cable issued the transcript of the brief inquisition journalists held for the leader of the notorious Offa robbery gang, Ayodele Akinnibosun. The gang had created national panic when on April 5; it robbed six banks and massacred 33 persons, by Police accounts, within a space of an hour, in the sleepy town, in Kwara State.

The robbery gang boss had introduced himself as the Chairman of the Liberation Youths Movement, Kwara South. (So uplifting! The liberation of youths.) He has been working for the Senate President (Dr. Bukola Saraki) and Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed as the political mobilizer of youths. Akinnibosun said he has been doing so for a long time, indeed, since Dr. Saraki was governor of Kwara State (2003-2011).

The unhappy journalists, (you could divine their state of mind from the tone of their questions), asked him to be specific, and to tell them exactly what he did for the Senate President. What type of work did he do for the No. 3 man in the Nigerian Federal Government? The gang leader answered directly that he and his gang mobilize and do what he called “political arrangement” for the Senate President in Kwara South.

Not satisfied, the journalists then blurted: “Describe the work you do. What the Police PRO said has to do with Robbery (sic) and that is weighty. You are talking politics and that is light. What do you do for the Senate President?”

The gang leader then answered: “Where we can’t win, we make arrangement there. We scatter the election if we don’t win.”

To the journalists, robbery is weighty;to “scatter” an election is light. That flawed assessment seems to be the popular judgment which saw Nigerians piling on the Police and finding all manner of excuses to extricate the Senate President and the Governor, or, at best, to understate the shocking implications of the statements of the robbers. And it needs to be said that the robbers have not directly accused the Kwara strong men of any offence. Even so, strenuous efforts were made even at the expense of due process to keep the potentates at a distance from the crime.

It was, therefore, no surprise that the journalists persisted in distancing the Senate President. So they asked the gangster: What is the connection between the robbery and the Senate President? “The connection,” he said, “is that, for example, this car (Lexus SUV thought to be valued at about N50 million) was given to me by His Excellency through the Chief of Staff of Kwara State as a gift from Leader.”

Related News

The journalists wanted to know who was “His Excellency.” To which Akinnibosun stated: “Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.” Still dubious of the gang leader’s narration, they now asked him, as if they didn’t know, to “please, what has Offa robbery got to do with your story? Did you participate in Offa robbery?” He replied without equivocation. “Yes. I participated in the Offa robbery. I used the Lexus car given to me for the operations in Offa robbery.”

At this point, the journalists spoke up more like the PRO or lawyer for the Senate President: “What was the plan? They gave you a car for political mobilization or thuggery issue (sic),” (how the journalists knew he was given the car for mobilization or thuggery issue was not explained), “but you moved it into robbery. We want to know the link. You are telling us a different thing. Did the Senate President send you to be killing or stealing from Kwara people? Simple and straight forward, that’s what we want to know.” The gang leader answered that “the senate President and the Governor of Kwara State, we have been their political thugs, that is what encouraged us to the robbery.” He was then asked about the weapons used and he pointed to a retired police officer, Michael, the one who came with the ammunition. That question required a follow-up to ascertain if the officer also supplied the assault weapons and, again, what happened to the ordinance they carted away from the police armoury in Offa. But apparently the journalists were more preoccupied with the role of the Senate President. So they asked him: “is the Governor or Saraki aware of the robbery? Did they send you for the operation?” He replied, “No. They did not send us for the robbery but because we are their political thugs that’s what led us to the robbery.”

The journalists closed with a nice speech on morality. “You have access to Governor and Senate President. There’s nothing you need that they won’t give you (how did the journalists know that?). Why did you have to engage in robbery with all these opportunities?” Akinnibosun replied like thousands of criminals before him: “It is devil that pushed us.”

It is easy to see that in the organogram of the Saraki political empire, Ayodele Akinnibosun was the equivalent of a chief executive officer. We are unaware of the cash rewards but Lexus SUV is the vehicle that goes with that rank in the richest corporate organizations such as Saraki’s. It is also clear that the road to Offa ran through Ilorin’s Governor’s Mansion through the highest citadel of the National Assembly. The gangster kept repeating that being the political thugs of Saraki and the Governor was the insurance cover they required to execute Offa.

If any blame should go to the Police, it is the lack of finesse. It was clearly disrespectful to invite the Senate President for interrogation through the television. But all the righteous indignation against the Police in the National Assembly is familiar and orchestrated whenever the Senate President needs to answer serious questions about matters concerning his conduct. We saw it at the Code of Conduct Bureau and the Code of Conduct Tribunal. In the first case he mustered the entire Senate and they all filed into the tribunal to overawe the judges. It worked. This time he has corralled both chambers to create an impending storm. Because of the Federal Government’s weaknesses, this, too, might work. But the Police should stick with due process, be respectful, but be firm. They must find the facts of the source of the arms. They must be able to establish the criminal responsibilities of each person. They must not feel intimidated. They should regularly brief the public. In spite of very unfavourable public image, the Police are the only criminal investigative arm of government in Nigeria.

Thuggery will kill democracy in Nigeria, if it hasn’t done so already. So many Nigerians have lost faith in the elections. The constitution states that no one is above the law. When a senator loads assault weapons in a bag and hands it to criminals with cash of N600,000, the Police need to charge the culprit to court. Politicians must bear responsibility for the company they keep and the friends they make. When, therefore they aid and abet criminal conduct they should be held accountable. Since 1999, members of the National Assembly have acted as if they are above the law. They are undermining democracy by so doing.

The impression that the engagement of political thugs is tolerable goes against all the tenet of democracy. “We scatter the election, if we don’t win.” That cannot be democracy? We all saw it in action on May 4 at the Ekiti governorship primaries a few weeks ago. Thugs of the losing candidate scattered everything. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should review Saraki’s votes in Kwara South dating back 2003. It should review Governor Ahmed’s, too. Most of those votes were probably received through threats, blackmail and intimidation. That is not democracy. There must be a remedy for stolen elections.