Wanted Igboho flees as DSS opens up on Thursday invasion of his house, alerts international community

Sunday Adeyemo and his men confronted Nigeria security agents  midnight in a two-hour- long shootout at his Soka home, Ibadan, on Thursday, triggering a avalanche of media report in which neither Adeyemo nor the Nigeria government forthcoming with the truth.

But the DSS later revealed it was an intelligence-based joint confrontation with the Yoruba nation agitator believed to be stockpiling weapons, and it was bloody.

According to a press release sent to the National Daily  by the DSS, Igboho and his armed men also engaged the security agents.

“In the course of the exchange, two IGBOHO’s armed men were gunned down while the rest were subdued and arrested,” the agency spokesperson Peter Afunnaya said.

“Only one operative who was shot by the assailants on his right hand sustained injury. He has however received medical attention and is very stable.”

Igboho himself confirmed the killing of his two men by men in military uniforms, and his sympathisers, including Prof Banji Akintoye, leader of Igboho’s Ilana Omo Oodua, also explained the abduction of others.

“I didn’t kill anybody. I was only fighting for the freedom of the Yoruba,” Igboho said in an interview with the BBC Pidgin Service on Thursday.

But they were all silent on the identity of the casualties and the manner of the confrontation, as the National Daily earlier reported.

“On approach to the residence, the team came under heavy gun attack by nine men, suspected to be IGBOHO’s guards. Six of them were armed with AK-47 gun and three others, with Pump-Action riffles,” the DSS statement read, adding Igboho and his group snatched the weapons form men of the Nigeria Customs Service.

Igboho equally failed to declare the items the security agents now claim they found in his home:

i. Seven (7) AK-47 assault rifles;
ii. Three (3) Pump Action guns;
iii. Thirty (30) fully charged AK-47 magazines;
iv. Five Thousand (5,000) rounds of 7.62mm ammunition;
v. Five (5) Cutlasses, One (1) Jack knife, One (1) Pen Knife
vi. Two (2) Pistol holsters;
vii. One (1) binoculars
viii. A wallet containing Five (5) US Dollars in one (1) Dollar denomination; local and international driver’s licences in his name, ATM Cards, a German residence permit No. YO2N6K1NY bearing his name;
ix. Two (2) whistles;
x. Fifty (5) Cartridges;
xi. Eighteen (18) Walkie-Talkies;
xii. Three Voodoo charm jackets/traditional body armour;
xiii. Two (2) Laptops (One (1) Toshiba and One (1) Compaq); and
xiv. His International Passport and those of many others (as displayed here). Further exploitation and forensic analysis are ongoing.

The joint security team also paraded 12 men and one woman among the suspects they arrested and brought to Abuja.

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Igboho himself escaped, leaving behind his jujuic powers with which he usually boasted he could tackle security problem and confront terrorists in the southwest.

The suspects the DSS is currently profiling are:

i. Abdulateef OFEYAGBE
ii. Amoda BABATUNDE aka Lady K (female)
iii. Tajudeen ERINOYEN
iv. Diakola ADEMOLA
v. Abideen SHITTU
vi. Jamiu NOAH
vii. Ayobami DONALD
viii. Adelabe USMAN
ix. Oluwafelumi KUNLE
x. Raji KAZEEM
xi. Taiwo OPEYEMI and
xii. Bamidele SUNDAY.

The agency said Igboho, who granted interviews yesterday, directly and through his Facebook handler Olayomi Koiki,  is now on the run, less than 24 hours to the Lagos Mega Rally he initially planned, but later suspended after the incident.

“IGBOHO may run as far as he can. He may hide as long as he wants.  He might have attacked security operatives as his strength carried him.  But this will be the end of his shenanigans,” the statement read.

The agency also alerted embassies and foreign organizations to understand the fugitive is not whom he might present himself to be.

“IGBOHO and his group, in the guise of campaign for self-determination, have become well-armed and determined to undermine public order. This, the arrests and seizures are, no doubt, a confirmation of a grand plan by IGBOHO and his cohorts to wage a violent insurrection against the Nigerian State,” the agency said.

It advised those cheering the car dealer turned agitator on to counsel him so he turn himself in as the government readies the 13 suspects for arraignment.

With Igboho, the militant leader of the Yoruba secession campaign, on the flight, the agitation for the Oodua nation, unpopular among the region’s elite, may have ground to a halt.