Sunday Igboho Gets Monday Date In Beninese Court, Wife Now Free
BY EDMOND ODOK – The embattled Yoruba Nation agitator, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, alias Sunday Igboho, has been remanded in custody by the Beninese Court that adjourned his case to Monday, July 26, 2021.
In hearing the immigration-related accusations against Igboho, the Court ordered that he be remanded in the custody of Brigade Criminelle in Cotonou pending the submission of charges by the Nigerian Government. However, his wife, Ropo, a German citizen, has been left off the hook.
Igboho’s extended detention followed a lengthy hearing in a court in Cotonou, the capital of Benin Republic over immigration-related charges.
He was arrested at the Cardinal Bernardin International Airport, Cotonou on Monday, July 19 with a fake passport while attempting to board a flight out of the French-speaking country to Germany.
According to reports monitored in the West African nation, the hearing, which started early on Thursday, went on into the night and eventually ended with the release of the popular activist’s wife.
In confirming the development, a statement by Media Communications Secretary of the Yoruba self-determination groups’ umbrella body Ilana Omo Oodua (IOO), Maxwell Adeleye, said the case has been adjourned till Monday, July 26, to allow the Federal Government bring up whatever evidence they may have against Igboho.
According to the statement; “The Lawyers handling the case reported after the proceedings that Chief Sunday Adeyemo lgboho cannot be extradited to Nigeria for two principal reasons: “1. That contrary to insinuations, Nigeria and Benin have no Extradition Agreement; and 2. That Nigeria has not been able to come up with charges that could lead the court to order lgboho’s extradition to Nigeria.”
“What Nigerian Government came up with were mere allegations against Ighoho such as trafficking in arms and inciting violence that could result in the social disturbance without evidence”, the statement said.
The Yoruba Nation campaigner became a fugitive after fleeing the country following his brush with Security personnel, mostly from the Department of State Services (DSS) that launched a raid on his Soka residence in Ibadan, Oyo State on July 1, 2021.
In the raid that resulted in the death of two of his aides, the DSS paraded a cache of arms and ammunition allegedly recovered from the activist’s residence.
The Secret Police thereafter accused Sunday Igboho of treason and declared him wanted.
However, since his arrest and detention in Cotonou, there has been a raging battle of wits between the Nigerian government and Igboho’s counsels over his release or extradition to Nigeria.
Reports said the Federal Government, through a former Chief of Army Staff and Ambassador to the Benin Republic, General Tukur Buratai, had approached the West African nation’s authorities for Igboho’s extradition.
With Igboho’s team of lawyers moving quickly to block that process and pressing for his release, sources hinted that Benin Republic authorities are unwilling to consider Nigeria’s request for his extradition until the immigration-related offences trial is concluded.
Igboho’s counsels are hopeful to secure his release on bail when the legal fireworks resume on Monday. – With agency reports