Sunday Igboho yet to be released, still held in Benin

Contrary to reports and various press releases on social media that Sunday Adeyemo (popularly called Sunday Igboho) has been released and flown to Germany, the Yoruba nation agitator is still being held by the authorities in Cotonou, Benin Republic.

Wale Adeniran, one of the leaders of Ilana Omo Odua, a body of Yoruba self-determination groups that Mr Adeyemo partners with, said this in a zoom conversation organised by Heritage Multimedia TV on Tuesday evening.

Mr Adeniran, a pioneer Commissioner of Education in Osun State, is the former Director of Institute of African Studies at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

The zoom meeting was monitored by our correspondent.

“I have just spoken with his lawyer. The lawyer has visited the location where he (Igboho) is being held. He was not allowed to see him (Igboho) but they confirmed to him that they are holding him in that location. He was asked to come back tomorrow (Wednesday) by 8:00 a.m. to see him.

“I asked him hope they are not going to play a funny game of secretly extraditing him, the lawyer told me it is not possible. We filed an application for political asylum for him over a week ago. With that in process, he cannot be legally extradited from Benin republic. I am very confident about that.

“I handle the application myself with the immigration lawyer and he assured me that since that application has been filed, he cannot be extradited. I think we should be rest assured that he will have the opportunity to see him tomorrow,” Mr Adeniran, a professor, said.

Speaking on report on Mr Igboho’s release, he condemned the development, saying “why should people be putting out false information that he has been released which is injurious to this struggle and to the welfare and wellbeing of igboho?”

He said four international lawyers from Benin Republic, Nigeria, France and Britain are on the case.

“When the lawyers saw the false information, they relaxed, I had to tell them it is false. So can you see the damage.”

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the police in Benin on Monday evening arrested Mr Igboho at Cardinal Bernardin International Airport in Cotonou, Benin Republic, while trying to jet out of the country to Germany.

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He was arrested by the Beninese police while trying to travel to Germany.

Mr Igboho has led rallies in Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Oyo, and Ogun states. He threatened to hold the rally in Lagos on July 3 but his home was invaded barely 72 hours to the planned date.

While some of his aides were arrested with various weapons, he escaped and had since been declared wanted.

He has in the past also called for the eviction of Fulanis in South-west states, an action that was condemned by federal and state authorities.

Mr Igboho’s lawyer, Yomi Alliyu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), argued that his client cannot be extradited to Nigeria because of the conditions of the extradition treaty of 1984 between Togo, Nigeria, Ghana and Republic of Benin.