Igboho’s wife gives own version of arrest story, contradicts lawyers

For the first time, Ropo, the German wife of Sunday Adeyemo Igboho, has spoken on the how and why of their arrest and detention while they were about to board a flight i Benin Republic last week.

While the Beninese authorities have released her, Igbho remains in detention pending when all the allegations against him—by Benin (forged travel document) and Nigeria (stockpiling weapons)–will go through judicial processes.

Ropo’s narrative of the incident however contradicts Igboho’s lawyers’.

Below is Ropo’s trending Whatsapp post:

Kindly disregard the news, my husband was not arrested over a fake passport.

Four of us were travelling out of the country: two of his associates to Dubai while my husband and myself were returning to Germany when we were stopped over our names which appeared on Interpol’s watch list.

“The other two going to Dubai are already there now. As for us, our passports were stamped by Benin immigration and while we were about boarding, the immigration officer that attended to us received a call and asked me to come back as he needed to check my passport again.

“Igboho, who was not called and already ahead, then made a detour to the toilet while the immigration perused my passport again.

“After some few minutes, I was asked to proceed, which I did, but I was once again asked to stop as there was another need to check the passport.

“All this while, I was in communication with Igboho over the phone and appealed to him not to leave the toilet since he was not called. But Igboho insisted that he couldn’t stay behind while I was being interrogated.

“It was when he made an appearance that the Beninese security operatives swooped in on us and informed us that our names were on their watch list and that they had the instruction that we should not be allowed to travel through their borders.

“I don’t know where Nigerian bloggers got the information of the doctored passport from, as that was not the case at all. In fact, the Nigerian government, as we speak, doesn’t even have access to Igboho as against the several claims in media.

“At the Cardinal Bernardin International Airport, Cotonou that fateful day, the security operatives invited us to their station and then the rest is history.

“There are so many negative and false reports being planted in the media by agents of Nigerian government.

“Igboho was not chained like a dog nor weeping like a baby.

“Besides, we know of all the attempts by the Nigerian government to get the Benin Republic to hand my husband over to them, and by God’s grace, all would fail.

“A Police Commissioner in Nigeria even tried to create fear in the judges by claiming that Igboho has a lot of charms and if released may kill those judges. This is not true.”