Saraki’s bloody legacy in Offa robbery and do or die politics – Green in memories of all in Kwara, by Bashir Adigun

The attention of Kwara State Government has once again 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 me 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. Kwarans have not forgotten that the RX Toyota mini-SUV used by the robbers bore the personalized plate number with Saraki’s name, and that the said vehicle was later hidden in a government ministry to evade justice.

Can Adewara and his masters deny the video confessions of suspects who openly identified with PDP chieftains in the state? Can they deny published interviews in reputable newspapers where their leader, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, openly admitted to their importing armed mercenaries from the Sahel to rig elections in 2015? These are facts etched in public records, not propaganda.

The PDP’s attempt to separate their bloody legacy from today’s security challenges is laughable. This is the same party under which Kwara was turned into a theatre of fear, sorrow, cultism, and gangsterism—when so-called “Good Boys” and political thugs unleashed terror on Ilorin residents and rural communities. For 16 years, Kwara was a fiefdom under the Pharaoh-like grip of Saraki, until the people rose in a revolution in 2019 to reclaim their freedom.

Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has never shied away from acknowledging the nationwide challenge of banditry and insecurity. But Kwarans are wise enough to know that those who laid the foundation of bloodletting, impunity, and armed thuggery in this state cannot turn around today to pontificate about security.

The PDP should cover its face in shame instead of attacking a Governor who, within six years, has rebuilt schools, upgraded hospitals, opened up rural roads, empowered women and youths, and given Kwarans a new lease of freedom and dignity. Kwara people can see and feel the difference between the dark era of PDP’s 16 years of oppression and the new era of development and hope.

To Adewara and his paymasters, I say: stop crying. Stop insulting the memory of the victims of the Offa robbery. Stop pretending that Saraki’s bloody political empire never existed. Kwara will never return to Egypt.

Bashir Adigun is Special Adviser on Media to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq