The Kwara State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s attempt to equate the 2018 Offa bloody bank robbery to the current banditry and kidnapping incidents in the state describing it as a “shameful defensive political stunt”. The PDP, in a statement by its State Publicity Secretary, Mr. Olusegun Olusola Adewara, was reacting to the Governor’s comments during his visit to Oke-Ode on Thursday, where “he attempted to shift the blame for the state’s security collapse by reviving the Offa Bank Robbery tragedy”, adding that the “Governor has exposed his absolute lack of understanding of the problem he was elected to solve”. The statement added: “Governor AbdulRazaq’s deliberate comparison of a single, albeit tragic, bank robbery, an act of urban crime which happens even in developed countries to the current widespread crisis of rural banditry, farm raids, mass kidnappings, and the resulting displacement of communities in Kwara North and South, is a shocking failure of executive comprehension.
“Banditry and Kidnapping are a direct result of ungoverned spaces, failed intelligence, and a security infrastructure overwhelmed by trans-border criminal syndicates which summarily indicate leadership failure. “A Governor who fails to understand the fundamental difference between these two distinct threats is clearly incapable of devising the right solution. The Governor’s response confirms our assertion; a Governor who lacks understanding of a given problem cannot provide the right solution. “Our party considers the Governor’s outburst at Oke-Ode as not only unfortunate but also insulting to the people of Offa, whose scars from that dastardly act are yet to fully heal. To exploit their pains for cheap political point-scoring is the lowest any leader can descend to. “The Governor’s reckless claim that Dr. Saraki is in court over Offa Robbery is a barefaced lie already discredited by a critical organ of the Federal Government. “We remind Governor AbdulRazaq that the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) of the Federation, Mohammed U.E., after a thorough review of the Police investigation, explicitly stated that the DPP was “unable to establish a nexus” that linked Dr. Saraki to the Offa robbery suspects.
“It is disheartening and cruel that a Governor would stoop so low as to repeatedly use the painful, open wounds of the Offa community as a political defensive tool to shield himself from national criticism over his own poor performance and cluelessness in managing the rising insecurity. Offa people must stand up and condemn the Governor’s desperate attempt to exploit their trauma. “We wish to make it unequivocally clear to Governor AbdulRazaq: Saraki is not your problem, neither is the opposition party.” In a swift reaction, the Kwara State Government, in a statement by Bashir Adigun, Special Adviser on Media to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, said: “The attention of Kwara State Government has been drawn to yet another uncouth, unintelligent, and desperate statement by the tattered opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), through its spokesman, Olusegun Adewara. “In his usual role as the defender and image-launderer of his embattled master, Bukola Saraki, Adewara shamelessly attempted to trivialize the blood-soaked tragedy of the 2018 Offa robbery while trying to whitewash the dark legacy of 16 years of PDP misrule in Kwara. “Let us remind Adewara and his sponsors that the Offa robbery was not just “a single bank robbery,” as they arrogantly described it. It was a national tragedy that claimed dozens of innocent lives, including mothers, fathers, students, children, and uniformed law enforcement officers, whose blood was spilled by criminals that had undeniable links with their political godfather.
