Politics
…as Nigerian government is yet to file for extradition
SUNDAY Adeyemo popularly known as Sunday Igboho, has been remanded at Brigade Criminelle in Cotonou till Monday July 26, while Ropo, his wife, his wife, a German citizen, has been released.
The judge also ordered that Ropo’s passport be released as both her and her husband were arraigned before the Cour D’Appel De Cotonou on immigration-related offences by the government of the Benin Republic.
Igboho and his wife have been in custody since their arrest at Cardinal Bernardin International Airport, Cotonou, while they attempted to board a flight to Germany on Monday, July 19.
Both were interrogated by Beninese security operatives at the Brigade Criminelle facility between Wednesday and Thursday.
The Nation reported that Igboho was represented by a Beninese and quoted a source as saying that the Yoruba nation activist may have to defend the allegation of holding a fake passport with which he was about to travel to Europe before his arrest at the Cotonou Airport.
Realnews reports that the Nigerian government declared Igboho wanted July 2, after joint security operatives led by the Department of State Security, DSS, raided his Ibadan residence, killing 2 and arrested 13 persons. He narrowly escaped and has been on the run until his arrest.
Although his supporters were in court on Thursday, they were not allowed into the court room except lawyers.
The Nigerian government is yet to file extradition charges against Igboho. It requested the government of Benin Republic to hold him pending the time criminal charges will be filed against him in a Nigerian court. Thereafter, Nigeria will ask him to be repatriated home to face the charges.
On Thursday, the Ilana Omo Oodua group led by Prof. Banji Akintoye, the organisation backing Igboho;s secession push, said it is opposed to violent agitation.
Akintoye said: “After careful studies of the records of separatist movements in our world, we are persuaded that the peaceful approach is more likely to succeed. Various nationalist agitations in various countries of the world have, in the course of the past century, employed violent means at various times while striving to achieve their nationalist goals.
“Yoruba groups engaged in serving the Yoruba nation need to note carefully that none of these uses of violent or terroristic methods achieved their purpose of self-determination or autonomy for their nations; all they succeeded in doing was to generate confrontations and wars with the governments of their countries.
“Young nationalist agitators, being young, are naturally attracted to tough and rough activism. From only proudly proclaiming the virtues of their own nations, youthful nationalist activists commonly tend to lapse into insulting other nations, into needless bragging and boasting, into daring or challenging other nations, or even into daring and challenging their country and its government – all of which actions tend to provoke avoidable conflicts, hostile governmental actions, and even wars. Our Yoruba youths must learn the truth that the use of rough and violent means does not usually confer success – and, indeed, that it is usually more likely to prevent success.”
Gani Adams, Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland and leader of the Odua Peoples Congress, OPC, who spoke on Igboho’s arrest, said: “I feel bad when the news of his arrest broke out on Monday evening and I started monitoring unfolding events. But I think the Federal Government should be fair to the young man because any attempt to trivialise issues of agitation might set this nation on fire.” – With reports from The Nation.
-July 23, 2021 @ 09:54 GMT |
Tags: Sunday Igboho remanded in Custody wife released
