Displaying items by tag: Yoruba Nation

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.

The leader of the umbrella body of Yoruba Self-Determination Groups, Ilana Omo Oodua, Professor Banji Akintoye disclosed that the yoruba patriots will ensure nothing unlawful or primitive is done to Sunday Igboho while in custody.

Recall that Igboho has been in detention since July 19, 2021 when he was arrested by Interpol at the Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou, with his wife, Ropo, but the Cour De’appal De Cotonou ordered the release of the Germany-based wife of the activist, saying there were no allegations against her.

The Department of State Service (DSS) had declared Igboho wanted after its operatives carried out a bloody midnight raid on his residence in the Soka area of Ibadan, Oyo State capital.

The Federal government has made move on the different occasions to extradite Igboho to Nigeria based on gun running allegations.

Akintoye told Vanguard that he would not return to Nigeria until Igboho is set free from detention.

Speaking through his media aide, Maxwell Adeleye, Akintoye, said the process of securing the release of the Yoruba activist was ongoing.

He  said:“I will return to Nigeria immediately Igboho is released from custody.

“Yoruba nation agitators, both home and in the Diaspora, must stand strong. We have resolved Sunday Igboho will not be subjected to inhuman and dehumanizing treatment of any kind.

“Myself and other Yoruba patriots are working to provide the assistance necessary to ensure that nobody will be able to do anything unlawful or primitive to him in custody.

“My continued stay here does not mean I am afraid of the Federal Government of Nigeria. I have not committed any offence to warrant fleeing from Nigeria as some people were insinuating.

“We are fighting for our rights. Yoruba people cannot continue to be slaves.   We are going to shock the Nigeria government with our plans. But we are not going to make them (plans) public. It’s going to be strategic. We are going to deploy what we have to get what we want.

“Sunday Igboho is our son and we will defend him with our last breath. He deserves not to be in custody for fighting for the freedom of Yoruba people. I assure you, we will become victorious as plans are in top gear to get him released, but I will not disclose what will happen next.”

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.

A diaspora group, Yoruba One Voice, has urged Yoruba people all over the world not to relent in the irrevocable campaign for self-determination for the people of the region.

The group also declared that the Yoruba Nation agitation should forge ahead with renewed zeal, saying that the right to agitate for the Yoruba Nation is entrenched in Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on People’s Right.

This was contained in the eight-point communique issued at the end of a webinar conference organised by the group, according to a statement on Sunday titled, ‘Yoruba Nation’ll forge ahead with self-determination agenda -YOV’.

The Aare Ona Kankanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, and other speakers at the conference noted that regardless of the challenges being faced, the self-determination groups must continue their agitation for Yoruba Nation.

This is coming barely 10 days after operatives of the Department of State Services raided the Ibadan home of Yoruba rights activists, Sunday Igboho, and arrested some of his aides.

Apart from DSS declaring Igboho “wanted”, over 40 suspected agitators were also arrested during a Yoruba Nation rally in Lagos last Saturday.

Adams urged other like-mind groups both within and outside the shores of Nigeria to join the quest for the liberation of the Yoruba race.

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.

Chief Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, on Saturday, that until the South-West region becomes an independent nation, elections will no longer be allowed.

Igboho, said this at the rally held at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park in Osogbo, Osun State.

There was heavy presence of the police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps at the venue, which forced the organisers to change tactics at the rally.

Despite the heavy presence of the police, NSCDC and the Department of State Securities, the participants entered the venue and staged the rally.

 Igboho insisted that the Yoruba people would no longer be part of Nigeria, saying lopsidedness in sharing leadership positions in the military and paramilitary, and high crime rate linked to Fulani herders across the region would not end until the Yoruba became an independent nation.

He also demanded immediate action by all stakeholders in the region to actualise an independent Yoruba nation, saying if they acted otherwise, the people would revolt against them.

He told his supporters to stop attacking governors in the South-West region, In his opinion, that the South-West governors are in support of efforts the region is making to get an independent Yoruba nation.

Chief Igboho admonished them that Federal Government might stop their monthly allocation of governors from the south west if they declared an open support for this cause.

He condemned the killing of residents of Iseyin by Customs men, saying failure to prosecute criminal herdsmen had emboldened them to commit more atrocities in the region, While calling for an immediate end to the prosecution of Oodua People’s Congress members, who arrested Isikilu Wakili in Igangan, Oyo State.

He said, “I can’t be cowed or intimidated. They said I would be arrested. Who would dare do that? We are no longer part of Nigeria. We won’t have anything to do with them again. There is no election again in Yorubaland until we have a Yoruba nation. Those in authority initially thought we were joking when we demanded an independent Yoruba nation.

“All our governors are with us. From Oyo, Ogun and Ondo to Ekiti, Lagos and Osun, they are supporting us, but they can’t do it openly. Allocation they give them in Abuja may stop if they do it openly. So, don’t abuse them again. Governor (Gboyega) Oyetola was informed I will be in Osun and he allowed us to come here. All our monarchs are with us.

“We are also demanding an immediate end to prosecution of OPC men that were arrested in Ibarapa land. That is part of the injustice we are talking about. They are still locked up. They didn’t commit any crime. They only stopped and arrested criminals. All the heads of the military, paramilitary and police are Fulani men. We won’t have anything to do with them again.”

In his remarks, ex-Director General, National Troupe, Akin Adejuwon, said the group, Ilana Omo Oodua, was behind the rally, meant to sensitise them to why they should stop a “gradual takeover” of their land by Fulani bandits.

He said, “The rally is to sensitise people, especially the youth, because they own the land and some Fulani bandits are gradually taking over the land which belongs to our youth. Once they grab the message, 1,000 Fulani bandits would no longer be able to confront them. We are doing sensitisation across major cities in Yorubaland.”

However, Senator Shehu Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th Senate, said the rainfall that “dispersed” the agitators at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park was a “divine message” for them to change their minds and embrace a united Nigeria.

Sani, in a tweet, said, “The heavy rainfall that dispersed the separatist agitators in Osogbo is a divine message for them to change course and work for the unity of our country. The idea of an ethnic or religious purist state stems from a xenophobic mind intolerant to co-existence.”