… ‘Leading lawyers in Benin Republic are now incharge’
JOSEPH OKWUOFU, Ibadan
A renowned Historian and Leader of the umbrella body of Yoruba Self-Determination Groups, Emeritus Professor Banji Akintoye, has assured that the Yoruba freedom fighter, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, a.k.a. Igboho, will not be extradited to Nigeria.
The Federal Government is pushing for the extradition of Igboho to Nigeria following his Tuesday arrest in Cotonou, Benin Republic.
Also, an elder statesman, the former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, has stated that the Federal Government created Sunday Igboho following the Igangan herdsmen killings.
Ladoja, who is the Osi-Olubadan of Ibadanland, accused the Federal Government of lack of sincerity in tackling insecurity in the country .
He said President Muhammadu Buhari should be held responsible for the crisis of insecurity and the emergence of ethnic heroes like Sunday Igboho and Nnamdi Kalu.
Ladoja, who suggested that President Buhari should talk to Nigerians more often, recalled that last time he spoke to Nigerians, there was relative peace in the country.
Though, the former governor said there was no big deal on the arrest of Igboho, he warned the federal government to know that there are many of sunday Igbohos outside there, adding that what is important is for the President to avoid siding one ethnic group against the other.
Ladoja further lamented the ugly activities of killer herdsmen in different parts of Nigeria and wondered why the nation’s security agencies under the watch of President Buhari failed to curtail the menace.
Confirming the arrest of Sunday Igboho in Benin Republic, Prof Akintoye revealed that leading legal practitioners in Benin Republic have been engaged to effect his immediate release.
Akintoye, however, said he, alongside other Yoruba Patriots, who are immediately available are currently working to provide assistance for Ighoho to prevent his extradition into Nigeria, saying “Benin Republic is a land that respects the rules of law”.
In a statement personally signed by him and made available to newsmen on Tuesday by his Communications Manager, Mr. Maxwell Adeleye, Akintoye called on all Yoruba people within and beyond the shores of Nigeria to come out and ensure that their ancestral land is not defeated by invaders.
“I received last night the troubling information that Chief Sunday Adeyemo fondly called Igboho had been arrested at the Cotonou Airport.
“I and other Yoruba Patriots who are immediately available are now working to provide the assistance necessary to ensure that nobody will be able to do to him anything unlawful or primitive and to prevent him from being extradited into Nigeria which is strongly possible.
“Fortunately, Benin Republic is reliably a land of law where the authorities responsibly obey the law. We have secured the services of a leading and highly respected lawyer whom we can confidently rely on.
“What the situation now calls for is that the Yoruba nation at home and in Diapora must stand strong, resolved that neither Sunday Igboho nor any other Yoruba person will henceforth be subjected to inhuman or dehumanizing treatment of any kind.
“We Yoruba nation are, by the grace of God, a very strong nation. We must arise now to show that strength.
“For a start, we must all see to it now that Sunday Ighoho will get his freedom back so as to be able to move and operate as a free person. We all know he has committed no crime.
“We know that some people are trying to suppress or even eliminate him only because he stood up to defend his kinsmen, women and children who are being massively killed and raped in their ancestral home Land; who are having their assets and means of livelihood destroyed, and who are facing ethnic cleansing and even genocide without having the benefit of protection by the rulers of their country.
“We know, furthermore, that for the protection of his people who are being brutalized, he has joined hands with many of his brethren to take the legally-approriate step, namely to seek the intervention of the International Criminal Court”, Akintoye, said.
