Displaying items by tag: Sunday Igboho

Yoruba Nation activist, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, has expressed confidence in gaining freedom if returned to Nigeria by Benin Republic.

In leaked audio obtained by The PUNCH and confirmed by multiple sources, Igboho said he does not mind being jailed like Nnamdi Kanu.

He alleged that he was abandoned by lawyers who collected a huge amount of money from him in Benin.

The activist said, “It is because of the situation I found myself in. If I am determined to get something done, nobody will resist me. When I insisted that the detention facility that I was kept here should be changed, they were forced to change it. I have accepted destiny. I am no longer scared of anyone. I am ready to face the judge that I am no longer scared of him. He should do whatever he likes.

“If they want to return me to Nigeria, they should go ahead. There is God there. Nnamdi Kanu is also in Nigerian custody and we are fighting a similar cause. I don’t care if I am returned to Nigeria too. I am ready.

Chief Ayo Adebanjo, acting National Leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, has said that the Department of State Service is behaving like a department under a dictatorship.

Adebanjo said this on the Morning Show on Arise Television on Thursday.

According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari is chasing Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho and Nnamdi Kanu around but he is negotiating with robbers, armed bandits who are troubling the country making security unstable.

He described the invasion of  Igboho’s house, as undemocratic, stressing that he didn’t know the offence that Igboho has committed for which he is being haunted by the federal government.

Afenifere leader said, “People cannot celebrate Sallah because of insecurity; prices of things are going high because of insecurity. His Department of Security Services (DSS) and other security agencies cannot get to where the bandits are but when it comes to opposition asking legitimately for secession, they are very active. It is very shameful.”

When fielded questions about the arrest of Sunday Igboho was a declaration of war in Yoruba land, Chief Adebanjo said, “The DSS is behaving like a department under a dictatorship. What is his offence? He has been holding meetings in Akure, in Oshogbo and other places, without causing any problem.

“What he did, is it different to what the Scottish Nationalist Party, a party that wanted separation from Britain, having been together since 1707, in fact since 1603, did in the United Kingdom, and now the party says they want to separate, but Boris Johnson has not arrested the leader of the party?

“He has not accused them of a treasonable felony or anything of the sort. In a democratic society, the worst that they can do is to go for a referendum, which they lost narrowly by 55 to 45.

“They are still agitating to have another referendum and they are in the same parliament with Boris Johnson. What criminal offence has Sunday Ighoho committed except that we are in a country under President Buhari’s dictatorial government?
 
Faulting the National Assembly, Adebanjo said, “Look at the kind of bills they are passing in the parliament, in a democracy and they are talking with pride about their actions.

“They are only disgracing this country by that action because all democratic societies are aware that this kind of thing is not done in a democratic setting.

“The constitution that we have is a fraudulent constitution and I gave my reason and it has not been refuted. Everything causing disharmony today in the country is under the imposed constitution by the military in 1966.

Reno Omokri, a human right activist and lawyer has raised a question, “why has this administration moved against Sunday Igboho?”

Omokri said this as a guest on CityTalks with Reuben Abati on City 105.1

Last week Thursday, it was reported that the residence of the Yoruba human right activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, better known as Sunday Igboho, in Soka area of Ibadan, Oyo State was invaded by the Department of State Service (DSS) and Military Personnel.

The attack occurred two days to the “Yoruba rally” scheduled for July 3 in Lagos by Igboho.

And the attack is one of the many reported attacks on Igboho and his Ibadan residence since January 2021 when he issued a seven-day ultimatum to killer herders in the Ibarapa area of Oyo State.

According to Omokiri’s reaction on the ordeal of Igboho, he is of the opinion that Igboho has not committed any crime.

He made reference to Article 51 of the United Nation’s charter and the Nigerian Constitution to buttress his opinion.

He said that Igboho calling for a Yoruba Nation is not illegal and he made reference to a group of persons in United States and United Kingdom asking for their own state.

“In United States, you have native Indians asking for their own states.

“In the United Kingdom you have Scottish people who have being asking for a state of their own as a matter of fact, they have a Party called the Scottish National Party (SNP), until today their number one agenda is to have an independent Scottish republic, nothing has been done to them, their leaders have not been arrested,” Omokri said.

Omokri mentioned that Igboho’s rally is not a rally calling for violence.

As a matter of fact, “the Nigerian Constitution guarantees freedom of association, “he said.

He also stated that Igboho has not made illegal utterances.

The human right activist condemned method adopted by the DSS against Igboho

He added, “We had a minister Isa Pantami who said on video that he derives joy when non-muslims, unbelievers are killed.

“The man is there as a Minister and nothing has been done to him.

“Sheik Gumi went for a meeting with bandits and told them that the soldiers who kill you are Christian soldiers; instigating these bandits against Christian soldiers who are fighting for this country, putting their lives at stakes, standing in the forest.

“The man has not been invited by the DSS and he has not been arrested.

“This is a man that has committed an obvious crime, because when you are inciting and instigating criminal elements against your State, that is a crime of treason, providing aid and comfort to the enemy and he has not been invited,” Omokri said.

He maintained that Igboho is defending his people as the United Nations Charter and the Nigerian Constitution provides and his premises was invaded by DSS.

Omokri advises Igboho to honour the invitation by the DSS and he should go with the crowd of his supporters, “in that kind of situation they cannot kill him,” he said

The Police have dispersed Yoruba nation agitators who gathered at the Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota, with water cannon and teargas.

The Lagos state Police command had on Friday embarked on show of force across state to send signal against the planned rally.

Speaking at Ojota, the Lagos Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, said the aftermath of the End SARS protest necessitated the need to prevent any rally over fear of being hijacked by the hoodlums.

This was after some Yoruba nation agitators dared the security operatives by spreading banners and flyers to announce their arrival and presence.

Some of the agitators were seen getting dragged into an armoured tank by policemen.

Odumosu stated that the timing for the protest was not right.

He added that the protest is coming few months after the #EndSARS protests during which the state suffered monumental losses.

The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami has being reported to have rejected the move by Catriona Laing, UK High Commissioner to Nigeria, to discuss the arrest of the Leaders of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Kanu, who is also a British citizen, was repatriated to Nigeria from Kenya this week after evading arrest for almost four years.

He was mostly in the UK from where he runs Radio Biafra, IPOB’s radio station with which he often engages in the call for a Biafra.

He was then arraigned before Justice Binta Nyako who ordered his remand in the custody of the DSS until his next trial date.

Dean Hurlock, a spokesperson of the British High Commission, had earlier told TheCable that the UK is “in the process of seeking clarification” from the federal government regarding his arrest.

According to TheCable, Laing raised the issue of Kanu’s arrest, but the minister quickly rebuffed her.

A source familiar with the matter said he told Laing that the matter was “not part of the agenda and we’re not going to discuss it”

There is little official information about Kanu’s arrest other than Malami’s statement that the IPOB leader was “intercepted through the collaborative efforts of Nigerian intelligence and Security Services”.

Other highlights of the meeting between Malami and Laing, according to Umar Gwandu, the minister’s spokesman, was the former’s insistence that Nigeria was right to ban Twitter.

AGF Malami said the nation’s interest is paramount above other considerations.

The minister added that any company operating in Nigeria must understand this and respect the nation’s interest.

“If you want operate as a business entity in Nigeria, you must do so within the context of Nigerian laws. Nothing offensive or that breaches the Nigerian laws should be entertained,” he said.

The minister and his guest discussed bilateral issues on asset recovery, anti-corruption crusade, amendment of the electoral act, the audit bill, petroleum industry bill, Twitter ban and counter-terrorism.

The Kenya Government has dismissed claims that it was involved in the arrest and extradition of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to Nigeria.

Recall that on Tuesday, the Federal Government through the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) told journalists of the interception of Kanu at an undisclosed location and subsequent extradition to Nigeria.

However, the British High Commission in Nigeria denied that the IPOB leader was arrested or extradited from the UK, where he is a citizen.

Also, it will be recalled that Kanu’s family and IPOB had accused the Kenyan government of having committed the most serious violation of international law.

But at a press briefing by the Kenyan High Commission in Nigeria in Abuja on Friday, the High Commissioner, Ambassador (Dr.) Wilfred Machage, dismissed the reports as “fictional, imaginary and deliberately concocted to fuel antagonistic feelings among certain section of the Nigerian people.”

The envoy challenged anyone with the facts relating to the alleged arrest in Kenya to present those facts, when, where, how and who was particularly involved in the alleged arrest.