By Eric Elezuo
The last has not been heard of the brouhaha that has engulfed the person of Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, better known as Sunday Igboho and the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government of Nigeria.
At the turn of the week, Sunday Igboho was nabbed at the Cadjèhoun Airport Cotonou while attempting to relocate to Germany after the Nigerian government through the Department of State Service (DSS) declared him wanted and issued a warrant of arrest against him. He was accused of stockpiling arms among other offences. Though the activist has denied the allegation, he felt, according to his lawyer that his life was no longer safe in Nigeria, and therefore, sought asylum in foreign land.
Ever since Friday, January 15, 2021, which by all intent and purposes is instructive in the history of Yoruba land and its attendant security, Sunday Igboho became both a hero and a villain. That day, while the rest of Nigeria was celebrating the bravery and sacrifice of both fallen and living soldiers from various wars across the globe during the Armed Forces Remembrance Day, Igboho and his supporters were storming the Fulani Community in Igangan, Oyo State. Their mission was simple: vacate Igangan community, Oyo State and all other Yoruba communities, which by implication means the South West region. The group, led by the grassroots mobilizer, whom many have labeled a warrior, confronted the Seriki Fulani, Saliu Kadri, and issued a one-week ultimatum for the Fulani to vacate the area.
Igboho had accused Kadri and his subjects of killing Yoruba natives including, according to him, Oyo businessman, Fatai Aborode, Alhaja Serifat Adisa and her children, an Igangan prince, among others. He disclosed that his mission has the backing of traditional rulers on whose bequest, his actions were hinged.
On January 22, 2021 when the ultimatum expired, all eyes were fastened on Igboho. Many Nigerians waited to see if he was not another noisemaker, especially as the Governor and Chief Executive and Security Officer of the State, Mr. Seyi Makinde, had issued a statement, denouncing Igboho and his men. Makinde declared that his government would not allow anyone hiding under the guise of protecting Yoruba interests to cause ethnic tension and perpetrate crisis, noting in clear terms that no one has the power to expel another ethnic group from wherever they choose to live in Nigeria. He threatened to arrest Igboho and his group of ‘fighters’.
The stage was therefore, set for one to back down or enter the barefaced confrontation. Consequently, tensions were high that Friday just as expectations were vague. No one knows what to expect. Would Igboho dare the state government or chicken out of his mission? He chose the former. He took the bull by the horns, and dared the powers that be.
Against all expectations, Igboho mobilised a huge number of supporters and as he promised, marched to the Fulanis enclave, and drove them out of their abode.
The young man, who as time progresses, added popular and Yoruba activist to his list of appellations, was received with much excitement by hundreds of youths with singing and dancing when he marched into Igangan, in Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State.
Speaking in rapid Yoruba, with intermittent incursion of English, a visibly-angry Ighoho vowed that Fulani herdsmen will be chased away from the town and the entire Yorubaland for inciting insecurity and banditry.
“What is happening will not be limited to this place, we will drive out Fulani from entire Yorubaland. They want to be killing us. We will not accept this,” he told the charged youths while insisting that Seriki, the head of the Fulani, must leave the town because he has been identified as a security threat. The Seriki was compelled to abscond from the town.
But for daring to disobey state order, Makinde and the then Inspector General of Police ordered the Police to arrest Sunday Igboho and others causing tension in the state. They maintained that the war Oyo and security agencies need to wage is not against any particular ethnic group but against criminal elements, irrespective of their tribes, religions, or creed.
The governor added that his administration would not allow anyone to threaten the peace of the state by acting unlawfully and saying things that are alien to the Nigerian constitution.
“For people stoking ethnic tension, they are criminals and once you get them, they should be arrested and treated like common criminals,” Makinde said.
But in a video that largely went viral, the activist, who had become immensely popular at the time, dared the governor and the law enforcement agencies to arrest him if they can. Having gained the sympathy of most Yoruba indigenes, including the high and mighty, who consider the presence of herdsmen a security threat, Igboho went ahead to make vile references and vituperations, and casting aspersion to whoever may oppose his line of action, in his speech.
“You can bring all Fulanis to Yorubaland, if you like, you unfortunate ones. It will not be well with you.
“You are threatening me in my fatherland with Fulanis. You will not prosper.
“Is it the Fulani’s that make the laws of the land? Have you forgotten when you were ‘bankrolling’ me when you wanted to become Governor and all I did for you all during the elections, and now you dare threaten me?” He spat.
That was the beginning of the Igboho’s travails in the hands of Nigeria’s government and security apparatuses.
A month after, on February 26, 2021, the DSS laid an ambush and attempted to arrest Igboho along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway when he and his supporters were on their way to meet with the 93-year-old Afenifere chieftain, Ayo Adebanjo. However, a huge pandemonium broke out as a result of his huge crowd of supporters and sympathizers, and the DSS was unable to arrest him. The incident emboldened him the more, and created around more sympathizers including influential Yoruba scholars and traditional institutions including former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, Yoruba leader, Banji Akintoye and Otunba Gani Adams.
Consequently, a Yoruba Nation rally was planned for July 3, 2021 in Lagos. This singular proclamation set everyone on edge with the Lagos Police Commissioner, Hakeem Odumosu, threatening fire and brimstone if any form of gathering is held in Lagos. As a result, combat ready policemen were mobilised to resist the protesters and the protest. The protest held after all, and the highpoint was the killing of an apprentice salesgirl, Jumoke Oyeleke, who was fell by a stray bullet.
However, prior to the July 3 date, the DSS conducted a midnight raid on Igboho’s residence in the Soka area of Ibadan. This was on July 1, 2021. Reports had it that there was heavy shootings, and at the end of the day, about 12 of his associates were arrested while two others were killed.
Igboho escaped under circumstances no one has been able to explain, and the DSS subsequently declared him wanted for allegedly stockpiling arms to destabilise Nigeria under the pretext of the Yoruba nation agitation. He however, denied the allegations, but disappeared from public view ever since until the Monday, July 19 news that made the rounds that he has been arrested, in company of his wife, by Interpol at the Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou, Benin Republic.
His arrest in Cotonou arose another phase of travails and controversy.
The Yoruba nation has mobilised itself in his defence vowing never to allow the Federal Government give him the treatment that was meted to the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu, who was clandestinely arrested in Kenya, and bungled back to Nigeria with little or no due process. This is even as the office of the Attorney General was quoted as saying that the Federal Government would go to any length, including offering juicy concessions to the Benin Republic to get them to release Igboho to Nigerian security operatives.
The Boss learnt that charges already prepared for Igboho are unlawful possession of firearms, attempted treason, conspiracy and disturbance of public peace, among others.
“When Nnamdi Kanu was arrested, nobody was aware and the Federal Government has refused to admit that he was arrested in Kenya. Since we have been informed of Igboho’s arrest, there have been a lot of legal interventions that the law is followed.
“The lawyers we engaged in Benin are especially discussing with the Benin Republic government. We are very confident that they won’t be able to repatriate him,” Pelumi Olajengbesi, one of Igboho’s lawyers said.
Reacting to the arrest, the leader of the umbrella body of the Yoruba Self-Determination Groups, Ilana Oodua, Banji Akintoye, in a statement, said Yoruba patriots, who were immediately available, were working to provide assistance for Ighoho to prevent his extradition into Nigeria, saying “Benin Republic is a land that respect the rules of law”.
In the statement made available to journalists on Tuesday by his Communications Manager, 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 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,” Akintoye said.
In the meantime, the Benin authorities have insisted that due process of the law must be followed if Igboho must be extradited to Nigeria in response to Nigerian government’s request for hasty extradition.
Reports available to The Boss revealed that a former Army Chief, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, a staunch loyalist of President Buhari and the present Ambassador to the Republic of Benin, has been fighting tooth and nail to see that Igboho’s extradition was speedily facilitated, but the quick intervention of Igboho’s lawyers, coupled with the laws in place in Benin in addition to the articles of the Extradition Treaty of 1984 has incapacitated the moves so far.
Olajengbesi, while speaking to The Punch, said Benin Republic had shown itself to be a country that respects the rule of law and due process, adding that Igboho’s legal team in Benin Republic were in talks with the Beninise government.
He noted that despite pressure from the Nigerian government, the government of Benin had insisted on following due process including a repatriation hearing to determine whether or not Igboho was guilty as accused by the DSS. At the first hearing, Igboho’s wife Ropo, was released and cleared of all charges as she was found not to have committed an offence while Igboho was billed to appear in court again on July 24.
Confirming the arrest, Igboho’s lead counsel, Yomi Alliyu (SAN), stated that the Nigerian Government treated his client unjustly and committed “savagery acts” by “invading” the activist’s house in the middle of the night, destroying his property, detaining and killing his associates.
Alliyu argued that “The Extradition Treaty of 1984 between Togo, Nigeria, Ghana and 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.”
The senior advocate, who described the arrest of his client as shocking, urged the government of Germany, Benin Republic and the international community “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 the International Criminal Court duly acknowledged.”
Condemning the arrest, Constitutional Lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhomelashed out at the government in a statement obtained by The Boss.
“The FG appears supersonically effective and efficacious when it comes to arresting and repatriating dissenters and challengers of its morbid nepotic and sectionalisitc government.
“The same government paradoxically appears abysmally weak and hopelessly helpless when it comes to fighting AK-47 wielding armed bandits, Boko Haram and other deadly insurgents, including ransom-taking kidnappers who are almost kidnapping the very heart and soul of Nigeria on a daily basis. The Nigerian Nation appears captured by non state actors.
“To me, this lopsided template demonstrates acute intolerance and ambivalence. It shows self contradiction. It shows an inclination towards enforcing laws against certain people, against certain classes of people, while at the same time turning away the other eye in enforcing laws against the other preferred and pampered set of people,” he said in part.
Also speaking, Chief Fani-Kayode warned against any form of harm coming to the activist, saying that “Arresting, detaining or killing this man will be the biggest mistake that the Federal Government can make. I say this because firstly, as far as I am aware, he has not broken any law and secondly because he represents the thoughts and aspirations of over 70 million Yoruba people. To every single one of those people, he is the greatest hero of the South West since Oduduwa.
Igboho, according to Wikipedia, was born as Sunday Adeniyi Adeyemo, on October 10, 1972 in Igboho, Oke ogun, Oyo State but his father relocated to Modakeke in Osun state where he grew up. He started off as a motorcycle repairer and then ventured into automobiles selling cars and was able to start Adeson business Concept.
Today, he is the chairman of Adeson International Business Concept Ltd and the Akoni Oodua of Yoruba. In addition to his various wars in favour of the Yoruba race, Igboho gained social media tractions in January 2021 when he gave a week ultimatum to Fulani herdsmen in Ibarapa to vacate the land after the killing of Dr. Aborode.
He became famous after the part he played in the Modakeke/Ife war between 1997 and 1998, where he was a defendant of Modakeke people. And thereafter relocated to Ibadan where he met former Oyo state Governor, Lam Adesina through a courageous step while trying to defend the rights of the people at a fuel station. He also went on to work with former Governor Rasheed Ladoja and became one of his most trusted aide.
As the Akoni Oodua of Yoruba land, he is known for fighting for the right of the Yorubas supposedly possessing metaphysical powers. He is also a staunch advocate of the Oduduwa Republic.
Igboho is a Christian, married to two wives and has children including three professional footballers playing in Germany.
On how he got the nickname ‘Igboho’, the activist said that people in Yoruba Land tend to give other inhabitants the “names” due to the place they live in. His father was called “Baba Igboho” because he comes from Igboho.
As a result, Sunday got the name “Sunday Omo Baba Igboho”. After Sunday’s father moved from Modakeke because of the war, people started calling him Sunday “Igboho”. This name stayed with him even after moving to Ibadan. The name of Sunday Igboho is widely known in the city of Ibadan.
Of a truth, the brouhaha is far from over, and only time will tell who blinks first.
