Sunday Igboho’s Incarceration Extended By 6 Months-Counsel •What His Cotonou-Based Lawyers Say
It has been disclosed that the Government of the Republic of Benin has extended the incarceration of Yoruba Nation agitator, Chief Sunday Adeyemo (aka Igboho Oosa), by six months.
Counsel to the detained Sunday Igboho, Chief Yomi Alliyu SAN, disclosed this in a short WhatsApp message on Saturday night to dispel the insinuation that he wouod soon be released.
This was as lawyers to Igboho, who are based in Cotonou, said his case file is empty, as the prosecution is yet to find anything incriminating against him, six months after, to warrant his continued incarceration.
Sunday Igboho has been in detention in Cotonou since July 21, 2021 when he sought to travel to Germany through the Republic of Benin, following a midnight violent invasion of his Ibadan residence by operatives of the DSS.
Barrister Olajengbesi, who claimed to be the counsel to Sunday Igboho, had asserted, in a newspaper report, that the Yoruba Nation agitator would soon be released.
Alliyu, in the WhatsApp message, debunked the assertion, saying the Government of Republic of Benin has extended Sunday Igboho’s detention by another six months.
“Contrary to what was speculated in the news by a lawyer, the Government of the Republic de Benin has renewed the incarceration of Chief Sunday Adeyemo (a.k.a Igboho Oosa) for another six months, even though there is no criminal charge in their file in Cotonou and without extradition request from Nigeria,” he said.
Alliyu also made available to Newscoven a release by Igboho’s counsels in Cotonou which he said would be published in French Language in the Republic of Benin today.
In the release, entitled “Six Months Of Arbitrary Detention: Sunday Igboho, Political Hostage Of The Government?”, the Cotonou-based lawyers said his prosecutors cannot find anything incriminating against him, six months after his detention.
“After six months in detention, the public prosecutor has extended the arrest warrant of Leader Sunday Igboho for another six months. The leader of the emancipation of the Yoruba people in Nigeria is thus kept in the bonds of detention while his file is empty.
“His only misfortune is to have chosen Benin as a transit country to go to Germany. Persecuted in Nigeria for his political activities, Sunday Igboho decides to go to Germany where part of his family is.
“But while he was transiting through Benin, he was arrested at the Cadjehous Airport on July 21, 2021. Detained for a few days, he was imprisoned for ‘criminal association’.
“This accusation is curiously not based on any fact but as a preventive measure against the commission of crime against property and persons.
“Sunday Igboho has no intention of committing any act in Benin. He was in transit in Benin. The prosecution has not managed to brandish any evidence against him for more than six months.
“Investigations in this case to prove his guilt were unsuccessful. No complaint has been filed against him. More seriously, the Government of Nigeria has issued neither an international arrest warrant, nor an extradition request against the Yoruba leader.
“And yet, he is kept in prison and nothing and no one seems to care about his fate, except his legal advisers,” it was stated in the release.
The Cotonou-based lawyers described Sunday Igboho as a political hostage, saying “several specialists and experts wonder if Sunday Igboho is not a political hostage that the Government of Benin wants to keep in exchange for bilateral negotiations.
“Indeed, in such a file where the guilt of the person concerned is probably not proven, justice could put him under summons or judicial control, or assign him to residence as an agent to see clearly in the file.
“But it is imprisonment, that should be an exemption in this case, that has been chosen. The well-funded reasons this pre-trial detention relating to the guarantee of respect for public (sic).”
