Yoruba leaders in Cotomou battle to prevent extradition of Sunday Igboho to Nigeria after arrest in Benin Rep

Yoruba leaders are mobilizing a legal team to challenge the extradition of Sunday Adeyemo, known as Sunday Igboho, a Yoruba separatist activist, in court after his arrest in Benin Republic by the Nigerian government in collaboration with the Benin support.

The leader of the Umbrella Body of Yoruba Self-Determination Groups, a remarkable historian, Emeritus Professor Banji Akintoye, acknowledging the arrest of Sunday Igboho in Benin Republic, disclosed that himself and other prominent Yoruba leaders are already “working to provide legal assistance for Ighoho to prevent his extradition into Nigeria;” he maintained that “Benin Republic is a land that respects the rule of law.”

Prof. Akintoye in a statement on Tuesday declared: “I received last night the troubling information that Chief Sunday Adeyemo, fondly called Igboho, had been arrested at the Cotonou Airport.

“I and other Yoruba Patriots who are immediately available are now working to provide the assistance necessary to ensure that nobody will be able to do to him anything unlawful or primitive and to prevent him from being extradited into Nigeria which is strongly possible.

“Fortunately, Benin Republic is reliably a land of law where the authorities responsibly obey the law.”

The Professor revealed that a “leading and highly respected lawyer,” has been hired to defend Igboho and prevent his extradition to Nigeria.

According to Prof. Akintoye, Yoruba citizens should stand strong and ensure that “neither Sunday Igboho nor any other Yoruba person will henceforth be subjected to inhuman or dehumanizing treatment of any kind.

“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 has committed no crime.

“We know that some people are trying to suppress or even eliminate him only because he stood up to defend his kinsmen, women and children who are being massively killed and raped in their ancestral home Land; who are having their assets and means of livelihood destroyed, and who are facing ethnic cleansing and even genocide without having the benefit of protection by the rulers of their country.”

Prof. Akintoye appealed to all Yoruba citizens within and beyond the shores of Nigeria to ensure that their ancestral land is not defeated by invaders.

The Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, Sunday Igboho, was arrested in Cotonou, Benin Republic.

While security operatives in the country were yet to confirm the arrest, Professor Banji Akintoye, in a statement on Monday, made the arrest public.