The Court of Appeal in Ilorin, Kwara State, has affirmed the death sentences handed down to five men convicted over the 2018 Offa bank robbery, dismissing their appeals for lacking merit.
The affected convicts are Niyi Ogundiran, Salawu Azeez, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Ayoade Akinnibosun, and Adeola Abraham.
In a unanimous judgment delivered virtually via Zoom on Friday, the appellate court upheld the ruling of the Kwara State High Court, which sentenced the men to death by hanging for their involvement in the deadly robbery.
The panel of justices, Justice Ridwan Maiwada Abdullahi, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, and Justice Abdul Dogo, held that the prosecution established its case beyond reasonable doubt and found no basis to overturn the earlier verdict.
Kwara State Director of Public Prosecutions, Mohammed Akande, confirmed that the court upheld both the convictions and sentences originally imposed by Justice Haleemah Saleeman of the Kwara State High Court.
All grounds of appeal filed by the convicts were dismissed, and the court ordered their immediate return to prison custody.
The five men were convicted on charges of armed robbery, illegal possession of firearms, and culpable homicide.
A sixth suspect, Michael Adikwu, a retired police officer, died in custody before the trial began.
The convictions stem from the coordinated bank robbery in April 2018 in Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State, during which five commercial banks were attacked.
At least 32 people, including nine police officers, two of them female, were killed in the incident, making it one of the deadliest bank robberies in Nigeria’s history.
Justice Saleeman had earlier sentenced the convicts to death by hanging after a trial that lasted nearly six years and drew nationwide attention. She also imposed additional three-year prison terms for illegal possession of firearms.
