SUNDAY IGBOHO ARREST: Yoruba Monarchs, Lawyers Battle To Stop Extradition Of Igboho From Benin Republic

Some of the Yoruba leaders and elders disclosed that there were deliberations of the matter going on.

SUNDAY IGBOHO ARREST: Yoruba Monarchs, Lawyers Battle To Stop Extradition Of Igboho From Benin Republic

Yoruba leaders, including monarchs, have rallied support for Yoruba freedom fighter, Sunday Adeyemo (Igboho) who was arrested in Cotonou, Benin Republic.

Some of the leaders disclosed that there were deliberations on the matter.

It was also reported by Eaglesforesight correspondent that, lawyers had been engaged to decline Igboho’s extradition to Nigeria.

Eaglesforesight exclusively reported earlier, how the Yoruba rights activist, Sunday Igboho was arrested at an airport in Cotonou on Monday night.

According to a source who spoke with Punch and SaharaReporter, leaders of the Oodua Peoples Congress, Ilana Oodua, and other Yoruba self-determination groups, who petitioned the International Criminal court are undeniedly involved in the matter.

In a copy of the petition sent to ICC, other groups involved in the agitation for the Yoruba Nation are Yoruba Strategy Alliance, Igbega Omo Oodua, Isokan Omo Oodua, United Yoruba Kingdom, Egbe Omo Yoruba, Oodua Foundation, Obirin Oodua Agbaye, Yoruba Intelligent Group, and Igbimo Omo Ijebu.

Among others are Paramole Igbimo Agbaagba, Akoni Obirin Oodua, Concerned Omo Yoruba, Oduduwa Awareness Group, Oodua in Diaspora, Afonja Descendants of Apapo Yoruba Nation and Ile Agbara Oodua, and Egbe Idanileko.

The monarch said, “We met overnight and reached some resolutions which I may not be able to discuss. Most of us have not been able to communicate with Igboho since the Department of State Services raided his house but we heard the news of his arrest late on Monday. We have involved lawyers who are currently battling to stop all efforts of his extradition.

“What the lawyers told us was that Igboho is a political criminal and there is an extradition treaty between Nigeria and the Benin Republic which does not support the Federal Government’s action. While we expect the law to take its course, most of us want Igboho’s right to be respected.”

Also in a statement on Tuesday confirming Igboho’s arrest, the leader of Ilana Omo Oodua, Emeritus Professor Olabanji Akintoye, said he, alongside other Yoruba Patriots, are “currently working to provide assistance for Ighoho to prevent his extradition into Nigeria”.

He also said that “leading lawyers in the Benin Republic are now in charge”.

Akintoye said, “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 have committed no crime.

“We have secured the services of a leading and highly respected lawyer whom we can confidently rely on in this case.

“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 appropriate step, namely to seek the intervention of the International Criminal Court.”