Olamilekan Shobowale Tuesday, July 20, 2021

Professor Banji Akintoye, a renowned historian and leader, Ilana Omo Yoruba has called on all Yoruba people within and beyond the shores of Nigeria to come out and defend renowned Yoruba nation agitator Sunday Adeyemo Igboho who was on Monday night arrested at Benin Republic and ensure that their ancestral home is not defeated by invaders

He made this statement through his Communications Manager, Maxwell Adeleye, noting that a request by the Nigerian authorities for the extradition of Igboho may, however, be turned down by their counterpart in the Republic of Benin.

Akintoye disclosed that some leading Nigerian lawyers are already in Benin, also said he, alongside other Yoruba patriots are currently working to provide assistance for Ighoho to prevent his extradition into Nigeria.

He said, “Benin Republic is a land that respect the rules of law” and called on
all Yoruba people within and beyond the shores of Nigeria to come out and
ensure that their ancestral land is not defeated by invaders.

“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. We have secured the services of a leading and highly
respected lawyer whom we can confidently rely on.

“What the situation now calls for is that the Yoruba Nation at home and in
Diapora must stand strong, resolved that neither Sunday Igboho nor any other
Yoruba person will henceforth be subjected to inhuman or dehumanising
treatment of any kind.

“We, the Yoruba Nation are, by the grace of God, a very strong nation. We must
arise now to show that strength.

“For a start, 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.

“We know, furthermore, that for the protection of his people who are being
brutalised, he has joined hands with many of his brethren to take the legally-
approriate step, namely to seek the intervention of the International Criminal
Court,” Akintoye said.