Confusion over Sunday Igboho’s whereabouts

*Group says he has regained his freedom

*FG, Benin authorities keep mum

By Stephen Gbadamosi, Ibadan

Yoruba rights activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, who is being held by authorities in the Republic of Benin, may have regained his freedom.

However, some reports as of press time indicated that the government of the Republic of Benin is refusing overtures by the Nigerian government to take custody of the activist, with leaders of Yoruba self-determination groups lauding the stand of Benin Republic.

Igboho had been held amid apprehension that he might be extradited to Nigeria by the country’s neighbour.

But indication that he had regained his freedom emerged on Tuesday evening when the Yoruba Nation Global Directorate (YNGD) issued a press statement thanking the Benin authorities in this regard.

According to the statement released by its Director, Princess Adeola Atyero Olamijulo, and signed by the group’s Directorate Coordinator for information, Chief Demola Edwards, entitled; “We thank Beninese government for standing by Yorùbá Nation,” YNGD expressed “appreciation to the government and people of Benin Republic for their intervention in the release of the human rights activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo Igboho.

The group said it “expressed gratitude to all whose prayers and calls and participated in the release of the activist.”

It thanked “all the Beninese lawyers in Cotonou who promptly stepped into the matter for their support.

“Chief Adeyemo is on his way to his destination,” the statement added.

Earlier same Tuesday, Igboho’s lawyers had said in another release that they hoped that the embattled activists would not be extradited to Nigeria. Signed by Chief Yomi Alliyu, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the statement said: “It is a shocking news that the Nigerian government has gotten Chief Sunday Adeyemo, a. k. a. Sunday Igboho Oosa, arrested by INTERPOL in the Republic of Benin, notwithstanding the political nature of his offence and what the Department of State Service (DSS) earlier said that they refrained from arresting him so as not to overheat the polity of Southwestern Nigeria.

“It is advisable for the INTERPOL and Benin Republic to be aware of the savage acts committed in our client’s house in the wee hours of 1st July, 2021, between 1.00 a.m. and 3.00 a.m., shooting their way through and killing two people in the process and maliciously damaging his properties in the course of that illegal invasion.

“Though the invading DSS officers did not state any reason for their invasion to our client before or during the invasion, they later paraded 13 people and ammunitions which our client denied to be his as he is a peaceful campaigner for self-determination and it is on good record that the guns and ammunitions displayed were the same displayed in 2013 in another instance.

“This could be seen on a 2013 Facebook post, though DSS has dismissed this on their website.

But what they cannot deny is that when they were leaving our client’s house, they left with two corpses and people arrested and nothing more except two guns belonging to the police escorts of Mr Adisa Saheed Olalekan.

“One of the people they killed was one Mr Saheed Adisa Olalekan of Oladams Motors, Osogbo, who came to Sunday Igboho’s house to discuss auto business.

He came with two police escorts. Though the policemen were not among the people paraded to the public, their guns were among those displayed.

READ ALSO: Sunday Igboho’s ‘Juju has failed’ – Joe Igbokwe

“The Extradition Treaty of 1984 between Togo, Nigeria, Ghana and the Republic of Benin excluded political fugitives.

It also states that where the fugitive will not get justice because of discrimination and/or undue delay in prosecution, the host country should not release the fugitive.

“Now, Article 20 of African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, to which the four countries are signatories, made agitation for self-determination a fundamental right to be protected by all countries.

This made Chief Sunday Adeyemo a political offender who cannot be deported and/or extradited by the good people of the Republic of Benin for any reason.

“Secondly, that he cannot get justice or even be killed is apparent in how those arrested in his house were detained for more than 21 days now without access to their lawyers.

Even the wife among them could not change her dress for 21 days. Which inhuman treatment can be more than this?

“Again another wife of our client, Mrs Ropo Adeyemo, a German citizen, has been arrested together with her husband in Cotonou. What offence has she committed to warrant this?

“We urge the good government of the Republic of Benin and international community, especially Germany, to rise up and curb the impunity of the Nigerian government by refusing any application for extradition of our client who already has application before International Criminal Court (ICC) which was duly acknowledged.”