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Tag: Igboho

  • Igboho approaches court for order restraining FG from blocking his accounts

    Igboho approaches court for order restraining FG from blocking his accounts

    Embattled Yoruba nation agitator Chief Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Adeyemo will on Wednesday seek an order restraining the Federal Government from further blocking his bank accounts.

    The request is contained in an order of interim injunction to be moved by his lawyers at an Oyo State High Court.

    The injunction will seek an order restraining the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the Department of State Security Service (DSS) from further breach of his fundamental human rights pending the determination of the main suit earlier filed.

    Igboho had filed an originating motion seeking orders declaring invasion of his Ibadan residence on July 1 illegal, restraining security agencies and their agents from further invasion and N500 billion damages for the invasion.

    The suit, the lawyers said, derived from Order 11, Order XI and XIL of the fundamental human rights (enforcement procedure rules 2009, and under the inherent jurisdiction of the court as preserved by section 6 of the 1999 constitution.

    DSS personnel had stormed Igboho’s house in Soka area of Ibadan between 1am and 3am on July 1, shooting their way through.

    Two persons were killed in the incident while 14 people were arrested.

    The DSS has paraded the suspects and ammunition which they allegedly recovered from his house.

    But the embattled agitator, who is standing trial in Cotonou, Benin Republic, denied he kept ammunition in his house, saying the armed law enforcers must have come with the said ammunition.

    In the suit, Igboho, through his lawyer Chief Yomi Aliu (SAN), is seeking orders declaring the invasion as a violation of his fundamental human right, damage of his property as a violation of his fundamental right to peacefully own property and wealth as well as N500 billion damages among others.

    The sum was described as “exemplary and/or aggravated damages for breaching the applicant’s fundamental rights in the course of illegal and/or malicious invasion of his residence situate, lying and being at Igboho Villa. No.1, Dalag Street, Off Soka Bus Stop, Soka Area, Off Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ibadan.”

    Igboho is also asking the court for a declaration that it was “oppressive, malicious, arbitrary and grossly unconstitutional for the 2nd & 3rd respondents to invade the residence of the Applicant situate, lying and being at Igboho Villa, 1, Dalag Street, Off Soka Bus Stop, Soka Area, Off Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ibadan without announcing who they were and ask the applicant to open his gate but rather shot their way through killing two people including an elderly Imam doing Tahjud (night vigil), shooting at cars thereby destroying them and not sparing animals like cats and dogs in total violation of the intendments of the Fundamental Human Rights’ provision in CFRN, 1999 and African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement), Act, LFN 2010. protecting the-dignity of human person, sanctity of human life and privacy c citizens and their homes.”

    It also urged the court to declare that “the respondents’ resolve in preventing the applicant from propagating his belief in association with other like minds in creating a Yoruba Nation and/or Oduduwa Republic for his Indigenous Yoruba People and hunting him with gun with a view to arresting him dead or alive when he has not called for war in achieving same is against his fundamental rights to freedom of thought, conscience and association since campaign for self-determination is recognized by Nigerian Law and international treaties of organisations to which Nigeria belongs.”

    He prayed the court for an injunction restraining the respondents from arresting, harassing or disturbing him in any way that can violate his fundamental human rights.

  • DSS defies court order, fails to produce Igboho’s detained aides

    DSS defies court order, fails to produce Igboho’s detained aides

    The Department of State Services (DSS) has defied a court order to produce the 12 detained aides of Yoruba-nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja had last week ordered the DSS to produce in court on July 29, the 12 aides who have been in their custody since July 2, 2021.

    Their case was expected to proceed regardless of the annual court vacation slated to begin on July 26.

    But since the DSS failed to bring the aides before the court on Thursday, the case has stalled yet again, with Justice Egwatu now issueing another order, asking the DSS to produce the 12 aides in court on Monday, August 2.

    While giving the order, he stressed that when a court of competent Jurisdiction, gives an order, such must be respected and obeyed.

    However, counsel to the DSS, David Awo, explained that it wasn’t their intention to disrespect the court.

    According to him, most of the aides are no longer in their custody as they have now been taken away for verification of facts.

    Speaking further, he noted that the DSS has no intention to keep them indefinitely so they would be released once investigations are completed.

    Meanwhile, counsel to the 12 aides, Pelumi Olajenbasi, has asked the court to sanction the DSS for what he believes to be a deliberate act of disrespect.

    In addition, Olajenbasi asked that the court orders the DSS to release the aides on bail and grant him access to them.

    Justice Egwatu, thereafter, made an order directing the DSS to make way for the Counsel to see them between today and the next adjourned date (Monday).

    The suspects had earlier sued the DSS before the Federal High Court Abuja, on grounds that their fundamental human rights had been infringed.

  • [Photos] Buratai meets Beninese President amidst Nigeria’s demand for Igboho’s extradition

    [Photos] Buratai meets Beninese President amidst Nigeria’s demand for Igboho’s extradition

    Nigeria’s Ambassador to Benin Republic, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (retd.), has met with the President of the French-speaking West African nation, Patrice Talon.

    Buratai met with the Beninese President on Tuesday during the official presentation of his letter of credence.

    Buratai’s meeting with the Beninese President occurred amid the planned extradition of wanted Yoruba nation activist, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, who was arrested in Cotonou on July 19, 2021 while he tried to catch a flight to Germany.

    A member of Igboho’s legal team, Pelumi Olajengbesi, had said Buratai asked for the extradition of Igboho to the headquarters of the Department of State Services in Abuja, Nigeria but Benin Republic disappointed him.

    Buratai, Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff between July 2015 and January 2021, was deployed as Nigeria’s envoy in the Benin Republic in June 2021.

    Before then, the Nigerian President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had presented Buratai’s nomination to the Senate and the upper chamber of the National Assembly had confirmed the ex-COAS’ nomination despite public outcry of some crimes against humanity allegedly committed by the Nigerian Army under Buratai’s leadership.

    In a statement, the Beninese Government said Talon granted audience to each of the new ambassadors and discussed with them on the revitalisation and strengthening of bilateral cooperation between these different countries and Benin.

    Talon was also said to have received a brief update on the state of cooperation between Benin, Nigeria and the other countries.

    “The President of the Republic also took the opportunity to invite the new Ambassadors to work more on consolidating and strengthening the warm relations that already exist between their countries and Benin,” the statement added.

    It was, however, not clear whether or not Buratai discussed Igboho’s extradition with the Beninese President.

    Igboho, an arrowhead of the secessionist agitation for Yoruba nation, has been in detention since July 19, 2021 when he was arrested by Interpol at the Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou around 8pm.

  • New twist as Benin Republic slams fresh charges on Sunday Igboho

    New twist as Benin Republic slams fresh charges on Sunday Igboho

    There appears to be a new twist in the case of embattled Yoruba agitator, Sunday Adeyemo (Igboho) standing trial in neighbouring Benin Republic.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG gathered that Igboho who was arrested on July 19 with his wife while attempting to travel to Germany has now been charged with illegal entry into Benin Republic.

    He is also explaining his mission in Cotonou, the Benin Republic capital.

    Igboho, however in is defence told the court that he fled Nigeria to avoid being killed.

    The court ruled that he should be relocated to prison from police custody.

    This was revealed by Igboho’s lawyer, David Ibrahim Salami.

    According to him, Ighoho was in court from 7:30 am till about midnight.

    Salami, a Professor of Law in a Beninoise University, said: “While defending himself on the criminal allegations put on his head by Nigeria, Igboho told the judges that he had never been tried for any crime in his life.”

    According to Salami, Igboho said he had neither been invited to any police station nor any formal charges brought against him as a result of his agitation for the separation of Yoruba nation from Nigeria.

    He explained that he was only trying to free ‘his people’ from the atrocities of killer-herdsmen, which made him incur the wrath of some powerful individuals in government.

    “When the judge asked him how and when he entered the Benin Republic, who housed him and who took him to the airport, Igboho told the court that his coming to the Benin Republic was to flee from his traducers who wanted to kill him in Nigeria.

    “He stressed that he spent less than one day in Cotonou before attempting to travel to Germany,” Salami added.

    The lawyer spoke further: “What amazed me is the fact that the judge was explicit that Igboho’s continued detention is not as a result of his issues with Nigeria, that he is being sent to prison because of infractions committed here in the Benin Republic.”

    Salami said Igboho was sent to prison to allow investigation into how he came into Cotonou and why.

    Salami said no date had been fixed for the continuation of trial because the authorities would need time to investigate how Igboho entered the country.

    He said Benin Republic law allows Igboho to be admitted to bail pending the outcome of the investigation.

    On why the trial is behind the curtain, he added that it is when investigations are concluded that the judgment can be read in the open court.

    Igboho, according to the lawyer, showed discomfort as a result of bruises he suffered when the Department of State Services (DSS) attacked his residence on July 1.

    As a result, Igboho was allowed to sit throughout Monday’s court sessions instead of standing before the judges.

    As a prison inmate, he will be entitled to medical services if there is a need, unlike when he was in police custody.

    Salami said Igboho’s trial, which began from an extradition request from the Nigerian authorities, is now centred solely on whether or not he broke the laws of the Benin Republic.

    The primary task now is to establish whether the embattled activist entered Cotonou through legal or illegal routes, and what his mission was meant to achieve, the lawyer said.

    Salami said the Nigerian authority had not filed any papers against Igboho.

    “We have also not seen any written complaints from Nigeria being placed before the court. It is a case between the Benin Republic and Sunday Igboho – nothing more,” he explained.

    Explaining why Monday’s proceeding was prolonged, Salami said it needed to be so because the trial is being handled by three judges whose functions and powers are different but complementary: prosecution judge, investigative judge, and judge of liberty or detention.

    He said the matter before the prosecution judge office did not commence until 2 pm. Reason: the enormity of tasks the prosecutor’s office needed to handle. The trial then moved to the investigative judge by 3 pm, lasting till around 6pm.

    It was the judge of liberty or detention, who took over from his investigative colleague at night that ruled that more time is needed for the court to establish the true reasons behind Igboho’s coming to the Benin Republic.

  • Benin court sends Igboho to prison, rejects extradition

    Benin court sends Igboho to prison, rejects extradition

    The Court D’Appal of Cotonou has decided to detain Yoruba Nation agitator Sunday Igboho, in prison custody, pending further investigation.

    The court rejected Nigeria’s request for the immediate extradition of Igboho.

    The Court, which was expected to start hearing the case at 10:00am, began sitting at 5p.m after the police ejected Igboho’s supporters and journalists.

    According to reports, the session lasted till about midnight, when the court decided to hold Igboho in prison.

    The BBC reports that the police had brought Igboho to court as early as 7 a.m to beat Igboho’s crowd of supporters.

    Igboho spent over 15 hours inside the prosecutor’s office as lawyers and the state argued whether to release him or further detain him.

    After long hours, the court decided to detain him further.

    Many supporters had jammed the court early in the day in expectation that the case would come up at 10 a.m.

    But the police moved in to disperse them from the court.

    This prompted fears that the court was preparing grounds to extradite him to Nigeria.

    The Buhari government accuses Igboho of trafficking in arms, inciting violence to disrupt the public peace and agitating for secession.

    It wants him sent to Nigeria by extradition, though lawyers said Nigeria and Benin have no extradition treaty.

    Igboho and his wife, Ropo, were arrested at the Cardinal Bernardin International Airport, Cotonou, last Monday while trying to catch a flight to Germany.

    However, Ropo, who is a German citizen was set free by the court on Thursday.

    Igboho was remanded in the custody of Brigade Criminelle in Cotonou.

    Igboho was placed on the wanted list on July 1 by the Department of State Services (DSS) after its operatives raided his Soka residence in Ibadan.

    They killed two of his aides and arrested 13 others during the operation.

  • JUST IN: Tension as Beninois Court keeps Igboho, supporters waiting; trial maybe adjourned again

    JUST IN: Tension as Beninois Court keeps Igboho, supporters waiting; trial maybe adjourned again

    Indications emerged on Monday that the anticipated trial of the Yoruba Nation agitator Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho may be adjourned to an unconfirmed date.

    A source close to the legal team who met with the embattled Yoruba nation activist in the special room where he is being kept since morning said everything suggests the trial may not be concluded on Monday (today) as many have anticipated.

    He however did not give reasons that may necessitate a second adjournment since the trial began last week.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG gathered that as early as 7 am, Igboho’s supporters from Nigeria as well as those in Benin Republic besieged the court to identify with the Yoruba nation activist.

    But trial has not started as at 2.54 pm despite the fact that Igboho has been kept in one of the prosecutors’ rooms since early hours of Monday.

    The delay in the trial led to tension amongst supporters of the embattled agitator in the court premises.

     

  • Uncertainty in Abuja, Cotonou as Kanu, Igboho’s trials resume today

    Uncertainty in Abuja, Cotonou as Kanu, Igboho’s trials resume today

    The trial of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, continues at the Federal High Court, Abuja, today.
    Also, Sunday Adeyemo, known as Sunday Igboho, will continue his trial at a court in Cotonou, Benin Republic.

    Igboho was arraigned in Benin Republic, at the Cardinal Bernardin International Airport, on last Monday night. He was arrested with his wife on their way to Germany. Igboho was declared wanted by the Department of State Services (DSS) earlier in July after his Ibadan house was raided by operatives of the DSS.

    Two people were killed by the DSS in the late night raid while 12 other persons were arrested and later paraded in Abuja. They have since been charged to court.
    The federal government is prosecuting the IPOB leader on 11-count charge, bordering on terrorism, treasonable felony, managing an unlawful society, publication of defamatory matter, illegal possession of firearms and improper importation of goods, among others.

    In the charge, Kanu was also accused of instigating violence, especially, in the Southeastern part of the country that resulted in the loss of lives and property of civilians, military and paramilitary.

    He was arraigned before the court, following his extradition to Nigeria by the federal government and was ordered to be remanded in the Department of State Service (DSS) facility, pending the determination of his trial.

    The trial judge, Justice Binta Murtala-Nyako, gave the order after counsel representing the attorney-general of the federation, Mr Shuaibu Labaran, told the court that the defendant (Kanu), who jumped bail, had been arrested and produced in court.

    The prosecution further asked the court for an order detaining the defendant at the DSS facility pending the hearing and determination of the matter.
    In her ruling, Justice Nyako adjourned the matter to Monday, July 26, for trial continuation.

  • Nigeria’ll be better if FG dissipated efforts on Igboho, Kanu in solving country issues – Bishop

    Nigeria’ll be better if FG dissipated efforts on Igboho, Kanu in solving country issues – Bishop

    The Bishop of Owo Anglican Diocese, Right Reverend Stephen Fagbemi has urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to channel its efforts in resolving some of challenges bedevilling the country.

    Fagbemi said this during the 3rd session of the 13th Synod of the Diocese of Owo, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) at the Saint Paul’s Church, Okeluse in Ose council area of the state.

    Reading his charge, he lamented that the Federal government had not been able to resolve security challenges which had led to agitations from some sections of the country.

    The cleric said rather than dissipating efforts on chasing agitators, efforts should be used on solving poverty, kidnapping and banditry that had bedevilled the land.

    “While the troubles of our land are truly numerous, insecurity is one that has overwhelmed everyone in recent times, and it is evident that our national government has not been able to overcome yet.

    “Banditry has brought untold hardship and untimely death to many communities, and the highways are not safe.

    “Kidnapping seems to have become a lucrative but wicked business in our land. Many lives have been lost and millions of money paid on ransoms. We need deliverance.

    “The agitation of the South West people of Nigeria came to the fore because of the attacks on its people and the mindless killings of valued souls attributed to Fulani herdsmen.

    “While no area or state has been spared including Ogun, Ekiti and Ondo; it is in Oyo State in lbarapa Local Government Area that it has received more prominence.

    “And this is why Sunday lgboho has suddenly become a household name symbolizing the aspiration of the people for freedom and deliverance from these evil people.

    “It was disturbing to see the undeserved attack on his house in Ibadan on July 1. The government needs to exercise caution about attacking these people.

    “It must rather concentrate efforts at tackling the issues that led to their emergence. If only our government could exact the same efforts it used on attacking Chief Sunday Adeyemo a.k.a. Sunday Igboho’s house and use the same intelligence and skill it used on kidnapping and bringing Nnamdi Kanu the leader of [PCB to Nigeria, on the bandits and insurgents in Nigeria, our country would have become a better place to live in.

    “Whatever the Government of Nigeria is doing with these individuals and others, it should bear in mind that they stand for the concerns and interest of millions of Nigerians.

    “Therefore they should be handled with caution. There is no need to cause problem where there is none. They should run after our real troublemakers and killers and kidnappers of the people.

    ” l wish to call on all stakeholders in the Southwest to work together to save and protect its people from ruthless killings of their people. The Federal Government appears to not understand the feelings of the people.

    “Regrettably, the response to the Statement by Southern Governors, attributed to the presidency is, to say the least, insensitive and proven evidence that they would rather hold on to power than addressing the common needs of their people.

    “How on earth can the ban on open grazing be compared to motor spare-parts dealers living and doing their legitimate business in the northern part of Nigeria? When the Governors spoke, they spoke the minds of their people.

    “How can a call for the President to address the people take so long to come and when it did, it had no solution to the problem but compounded it by attempting to revert to an old route for bringing cattle to the South?

    “How can the business of a section of the society be allowed to override the collective security interest of the entire country?

    ” We call on the Buhari-led Federal Government to as a matter of urgency address the concerns of the people of this country instead of allowing an undue crisis to fester.”

    Bishop Fagbemi who commended Governor Rotimi Akeredolu for efforts being put in place to fight insecurity urged the governor to be more proactive in the ban of open grazing as herdsmen had disregarded the ban and had been moving their cows around again.

  • Igboho handcuffed, can’t move, eat but not beaten – Cotonou based lawyer

    Igboho handcuffed, can’t move, eat but not beaten – Cotonou based lawyer

    Ibrahim Salami, one of the Cotonou-based lawyers of embattled Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho has decried the unfair treatment of his client in the custody of Brigade criminelle in Benin Republic.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports the Cotonou Court of Appeal on Thursday adjourned the hearing of the suit involving Igboho to Monday.

    Salami, while speaking to BBC Yoruba in a monitored live update monitored on Saturday said: “We are five lawyers handling his case. When we visited Sunday Adeyemo at the police station, he was not beaten but what they did that is alien to the law here is that they handcuffed him inside the police cell after locking the cell.

    “This makes eating and movement within the cell difficult for him to the extent that someone has been helping him in this regard.

    “Apart from being a lawyer, I am also a professor of law at a university here in Benin Republic.

    “Part of what we teach our students is human rights. Human rights frown at the action of the police.

    “I called the attention of the police commander and the prosecutor to this but still nothing changed.

    “At the moment, Sunday Igboho’s hands are in chains at the police station. This is not good at all.”

  • What South West Governors are doing about Igboho’s case in Benin Republic – Sanwo-Olu

    What South West Governors are doing about Igboho’s case in Benin Republic – Sanwo-Olu

    Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has assured leaders of the Southwest are working to ensure the release of Yoruba Nation agitator Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that Igboho was arrested in Cotonou, Benin Republic last Monday on his way to Germany.

    He is currently facing trial in a Benin Court on his possible extradition to Nigeria.

    Sanwo-Olu, who spoke shortly after casting his vote in Eti-Osa council, said prominent persons in the Southwest are working behind the scenes to ensure Igboho’s release but governors of the region would not be able to explain such moves to the public.

    He said: “People are working behind the scenes but the matter doesn’t have to be a public conversation.

    ‘’These are very difficult times for all of us, but I can assure you that people are working behind the scenes. In times like this, it’s not by how many press people you call.”