Yoruba Nation agitators have attributed the continued detention and fresh criminal charges preferred against Yoruba activist, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho by Benin Republic to workings of the Minister of Justice and Antoney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami; and a former Chief of Army Staff and Nigerian Ambassador to Benin Republic, Tukur Buratai.
The agitators, under the aegis of Yoruba Koya Liberation Movement (YKLM), alleged that the two government officials are behind the incarceration and fresh criminal charges by working with officials of Benin to ensure the activist languish in detention for a long time.
Yoruba Koya Director, Media, and Communications, Oluwafemi Oluwajuyitan, said that it was important for political leaders and other stakeholders working behind closed doors in pressuring Benin on Igboho’s matter to rescind their directive and ensure his safe passage to Germany.
Through a statement on Wednesday, Oluwajuyitan on behalf of the Yoruba self-determination group, urged President Muhammad Buhari, and other officers of the Nigerian Government to “desist from oppressing humanity or face a disastrous end”.
According to him, events unfolding in recent times have made it imperative to remind those who currently wield power to tread softly and remember that everything with a start will surely have an end.
He added that with Igboho’s recent travails, the events only remind one that in the face of suppression of truth and oppression of the masses, the oppressors have always consistently lost at the end.
“One cannot help but remember the brutish rule and reign of the dark-goggled General Abacha and how he ruled with an iron fist. We remember how individuals who stood for the truth and the declaration of June 12 election were hounded by state-sponsored hitmen. We remember how the dictator ended in ignominy.
“The present administration, being a democratically elected government, has surpassed previous military juntas in the bare-knuckled use of brute force to silence every voice of dissent.
“More worrisome is the rate of nepotism and a barely veiled attempt to lord an ethnic group over others. The dual law being applied by the state is also a cause for concern as Bandits, terrorists, and kidnappers in certain parts of the country are treated to sumptuous dinners with state actors while agitators for self-determination of their people are hounded and treated as common criminals.
“The Gestapo invasion of Chief Sunday Igboho’s house, the killing and abduction of his associates, and his eventual arrests in Benin Republic at the request of this government are testaments of this government’s effort at ensuring that their lawlessness remains unchecked.
“We, as a Yoruba self-determination group, sees it’s time that this government and its actors of impunity are reminded that nothing lasts forever. Nigerians are in the countdown to the end of this administration even as calls are made to the International Criminal Court to keep the dossier of reports sent to them as they will become useful in no distant future,” the statement added.
