The Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho has written a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari from his detention facility in Benin Republic. In a lengthy letter published by THE PUNCH on July 26th, 2021 Sunday Igboho spoke about the death of his people in the hands of murderous Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria. He told the President that the dead are crying for justice and repose, even though his regime is not taking the necessary actions to put a stop to the gruesome killing of his people.
Sunday Igboho told the President in his letter that he is a citizen of Igboho, a creation , and a product of years of government neglect. He said that when the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari kept silent as Fulani herdsmen butchered his people day and night, he was forced to embark on the road for self-help and he employed bravery, street wisdom and defiance to rescue his people. It would be recalled that killings by murderous Fulani herders in Nigeria has been an aged long issue in the country. The activities of these criminal elements have led to the lost of many lives and properties in the country. It has now spread across many states of Nigeria ranging from the North to the South. However, in many cases, citizens are left to their fate, because it is not clear if the government have arrested, tried and jail any Fulani herder who committed this heinous crime against his host. However, when citizens complaints do not receive the desired attention from the government, it could be considered a neglect in the part of the state. Sunday Igboho might be one among a host of others who have felt that their cries for help against the operations of killer herdsmen in the country have not received the needed attention form the government.
Speaking further, Igboho reminded the President that these killers herders are not only in the Northern Nigeria, but they have sprouted and taken over every nook and cranny of the land masquerading in the form of corruption, terrorism, rape, banditry, ritualism, Kidnapping and daily bloodshed. He told the president that his actions were geared toward protecting his people, just like the President himself spearheaded the protection of his own people in the Yoruba land in the past. He reminded Mr President the day he stormed Ibadan on October 2000 with some eminent Fulani leaders to find out why the local indigenous farmers had to kill 68 Fulani herdsmen in a reprisal. However, the claim that 68 Fulani herders were killed was clearly refuted when Governor Lamini Adesina called on some of his witnesses to testify. The State Commissioner of Police, the State Director of DSS, the Deputy Governor,Chief Iyiola Oladokun, the SSG, Chief Michael Koleoso, and Chief Ademola Alalade who was one of the chairmen of Oke-Ogun LGs of Oyo state were all invited to speak on the matter. From the mouth of these witnesses, it was the Fulani herders that were indicted as the ones who slaughtered their Yoruba neighbors.
Sunday Igboho said that though he started as a motorcycle repairer, through hard work, and self improvement, he is now an employer of labour. Though he is not a genius in everything, yet he understands justice and truth. And for this reason he champions the course of emancipation of the Yoruba from daily killings, victimization and repression, which have received the supports of the true sons and daughters of Oduduwa. Counting his loses, Sunday Igboho mentioned Dr Fatai Aborode, a Europe returnee, who was killed in his Igangan community of Oke-Ogun by suspected Fulani herdsmen when he complained that his 400-acre of cashew farm was eaten up by Fulani cows . He described his death as one too many. Also remembered on his list was the popular herbal trado-medicine practitioner, Alhaji Fatai Yusuf who was killed along the Igbo Ora-Eruwa road in Ibarapa community, among others. He blamed the government of President Muhammadu Buhari for being silence over the death of these prominent Yoruba sons, but engages in the rehabilitation and pardoning of the Boko Haram terrorists who have done so much harm to the country.
However, when questions are asked on who will avenge for the dead, truth must be told and justice must be sought. Truly, his emancipation course has received massive supports from those who believes in his ideology. Such supports could be seen in the rallies that were held in recent times, where thousands of the people of Yoruba would come out in their numbers to demonstrate on the streets of Lagos, and in other parts of the Southwest states. They would defy any security threat to further the course of their self determination. The eminent Yoruba leaders are not left out. Most of them have openly shown their supports to Sunday Igboho over his struggle to secede Nigeria. Even those of them who did not glamour for secession with Sunday Igboho, have suddenly expressed their interest in helping him to overcome his present predicament in the hand of the Government of Benin Republic. Governor Sanwo Olu of Lagos state has said that the rest of them will not let him down in his ordeal. Surely, he has more sympathizers now than he has the core supporters who championed the course of his secession plan.
Igboho said he is not a criminal, and that he took his actions because of the pervading sense of hopelessness, injustice and insecurity in the South-West. Since there were endless lose of lives and properties in his region, that was why he went to Igangan and gave the Fulani there an ultimatum to vacate the land. He reminded President Buhari that long after his seven-day ultimatum, the Emir of Muri Empire in Taraba State, Alhaji Abass Tafida, did not only give a 30-day ultimatum to Fulani bandits, but also said that if anyone is kidnapped in the emirate, he would mobilize his people into the bush to kill all Fulani men on sight. But he hasn’t been declared want simply because he is a northerner. He told the President that he would not tolerate such utterances if they were made by an Igbo or a Yoruba monarch.
Igboho wondered why he is being persecuted for asking for the freedom of his people from the murderous hostility of the trigger drunk Fulani herders. Whereas, President Buhari himself, in 2019 led a delegation to the UN General Assembly in New York, to advocate for the “rights of the Palestinians to have their own country… and live in peace in their own land.” He questioned why President Buhari is opposing his secession agenda, and that of his comrade, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, when the lives of average southerners are not worth anything under his regime. He blamed Mr President for justifying the reason why some members of his kitchen cabinet who were once indicted for terrorism related issues, are now allowed to serve in his government when he is professing to be champion of insecurity in the country.
Sunaday Igboho was arrested at the Cardinal Bernardin International Airport in Cotonou, Benin Republic by the security officials on his way to Germany. He was transferred to a detention facility of the Cotonou Criminal Brigade. He was charged and arraigned on breach of immigration law. Nigerian government has indicated interest in extraditing Sunday Igboho to the country to face trial. However, 3 days ago, a development from the DAILY TRUST , had it that, the Nigerian government are yet to file any extradition charge against him in the Court in Benin Republic. His lawyer and some Yoruba groups including the leader of Ilana Omo Oodua, Professor Emeritus, Banji Akintoye have said that they are working round the clock to ensure that Igboho is not extradited to Nigeria.
Credit: Opera News