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