A pan-Yoruba group, the Yoruba Global Alliance, says it is monitoring the alleged “seizure” of Yoruba activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo (Igboho), who was said to have been arrested on Monday in Benin Republic while allegedly attempting to escape to Germany.
In a statement by its Director of Public Communication, Taju Tijani, the group said though the details of Igboho’s arrest are still sketchy, it is “watching with intense fascination as the drama of his illegal detention unfolds.”
Yoruba Global Alliance said in a statement that in the middle of the 21st century, Nigerians are witnessing “a muscular form of democracy” under General Muhammadu Buhari who it said is daily retreating into a dangerous dictator bent on grounding Nigeria in shame among the comity of nations.
It observed: “We are witnessing the sudden and shocking re-emergence of military chauvinism in virtually all areas of our national life.
“Sunday Igboho emerged like a messianic figure and with his disarming simplicity and humility was able to enlarge a circle of mutual trust and solidarity with his Yoruba tribe at a defining moment when his tribe faced genocide from Fulani herdsmen.
“He gave Yoruba elevated understanding of the auguries that lay ahead if the activities of Fulani herdsmen are not curtailed in the South Western region of Nigeria.
“He contributed to a new social engineering through his seamless and peaceful awareness rallies that soon gained universal respect and support from Yoruba worldwide.”
The group said Nigeria has morphed into a “one chance” democracy that is bent on defending Fulani sectarian interest, curtail freedom, and use military clampdown on opposition figures.
It accused Buhari of deploying “the logic of the ghetto” to hunt self-determination groups while cuddling and pampering Fulani herdsmen, murderous bandits, merciless kidnappers, and criminals across northern Nigeria.
The Yoruba Global Alliance, however, warned that Sunday Igboho must not be physically brutalized; insisting that the activist must go through and exhaust all the judicial processes pertaining to extradition between Nigeria and the Republic of Benin and must have legal representation all the way.
It also demanded that the government must let the people know the crime Igboho committed to be declared wanted, “as we do not believe in the earlier trumped-up framing of stockpiling arms and ammunition levelled against him by the Nigerian state.”
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