Igboho Incarceration: “We Won’t Be Intimidated As We Are Determined To Achieve Our Self Determination As Yoruba People”, Say Diaspora Lawyers Who Sue Beninese Govt

A team of Yoruba International Legal Practitioners who last weekend dragged Republic of Benin to ECOWAS Court has claimed that their action to step into the matter was necessitated by unshaken determination by concerned Yoruba Legal practitioners to salvage the Yoruba people from the horrors of ethnic cleansing, subjugation and bullying, a trend that the race had faced since Buhari regime came to power.

The team claimed there had been a consistent plan to terminate the resolves of the great Yoruba people in Nigeria and what Buhari government is doing supporting Fulani killers in Yorubaland is consolidating the old plan aimed at rendering the Yoruba race in effectual in Africa.

According to him: “We as Yoruba people would not be intimidated and would never allow to be swallowed in our own land. We would resist all Fulani leaders attempts to extinct Yorubas through legal means”, he said

The group claimed the current intimidation of Sunday Igboho is only a proverbial message narrating what millions of Yorubas in Western Nigeria had been subjected to in the hands of Fulani oligarchy with Muhammadu Buhari perfecting and consolidating what had been a long plan by some Northern elite vowing to exterminate the Yoruba people and take over their land and turning Nigeria to mainly Fulani country.

Barrister Aderemilekun Omojola, leading the team said that the on-going free Igboho campaign now taken to the international Court is part of the Yoruba Diaspora Legal Practitioners contribution to the on-going campaign for Yoruba people seeking self determination.

“We want to be more involved in the current free Igboho campaign and get him off from further incarceration as he has committed no offence under any existing laws. All the facts guiding this had been enumerated in the case presented at the court”, he said.

elite , challenging the continued detention of Chief Sunday Adeyemo Igboho currently locked in Benin Prisons. The action is coming in the light of his arrest as he (Igboho) was passing through  Benin Republic to escape from Nigerian government, seeking to kill him.

The Lawyers, drawn from the Diaspora are urging ECOWAS Court to look into the ongoing incarceration of Chief Sunday Igboho, who for some time has been carrying our peaceful campaign on self-determination for the Yoruba people of the Western part of Nigeria.

The case was filed on behalf of a group of concerned Yoruba legal practitioners Igboho Legal Action Committee (ILAC) led  by  Barristers Aderemilekun Omojola, Dr. Janet Fashakin, and Barrister Tosin Ojaomo.

The lawyers on behalf of Igboho at the weekend slammed a One million US Dollars, ($1,000,000 U.S.) suit (an equivalent of five hundred and sixty million Naira) as compensation for general damages, for each day that he has remained under incarceration in Beninese prison.

The case had been presented before Community Court of Justice, the Economic Community of West African States,(ECOWAS) in Abuja against the government of Republic of Benin, seeking justice and damages in an equivalent sum of $1,000,000 (U.S.) for the alleged violation of his human right by the Republic of Benin.

Supplementary Protocol A/SP 01/01/05 by which the Court has the jurisdiction to determine the case of violation of Fundamental Human Rights of citizens that occur in any member state.

The application made references to Article 11(1) of the 1991 Community Court of Justice Protocol (A/P.I/7/91) by which “cases may be brought before the Court by an application addressed to the Court Registry,  the Revised Treaty of Economic Community of West African States (“ECOWAS Treaty”), Articles 56(2) and 57,  the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the “Banjul Charter”), Articles 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12(1), 12(2), 12(3), and 17(2), and Article 3(2)(d)(iii) of the ECOWAS Treaty, Article 2(1) of the ECOWAS Protocol A/P.1/5/79 relating to Free Movement of Persons, Residence, and Establishment, upon which Chief Adeyemo sought to escape the persecution by passing through the neighbouring Republic of Benin (“Benin”), to take refuge in Germany.

 The defendant in the government brought before the ECOWAS in Court in Abuja Nigeria is the government of the Republic of Benin, a member state of ECOWAS and a signatory or state-party to the Banjul Charter.

According to the subject matter, Benin Republic violated Chief Adeyemo’s human rights having been deprived of his personal liberty, freedom of movement, the presumption of innocence, due process, the dignity of the human person as expressed in the ECOWAS Treaty, Article 3(2)(d)(iii), ii. Banjul Charter, Articles: 1, 4, 5, 6, 7(1), 12(1), 12(2), 12(3), and 17(2), iii. Refugee Convention, Article 26, iv. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles: 3, 5, 9, 12, 13, and 14, v. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Articles: 5(2), and vi. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Articles: 9, 12, 14(1), 14(2), 14(3), and 14(3)(c)

The group in their presented case however in the application which was dated February 10, 2022, sought an Order for the immediate and unconditional release of Chief Adeyemo and urging the court to give order on the release of his international passport pending litigation and determination on damages

Igboho had a lucky escape on July 1, last year when a combined team from Nigeria security services including DSS, the Nigerian military, and some traditionalists, numbering over 200 laid a siege on his house in Soka junction, Ibadan, killing two of his aides and turning his home into a river of blood shooting indiscriminately at those resident in the house with live ammunition.

Igboho had a lucky escape from the siege and thereafter was declared wanted by the Nigeria Security services. He had attempted to escape from the Nigerian government after the brutal attack and had escaped to the Benin Republic where he had wanted to escape to his family in Germany. He arrested by the operatives of the Brigade Criminelle on July 19, 2021 precisely 19 days after his lucky escape.

 Igboho had been vocal about the surreptitious decimation of the life of Yorubas in Nigeria, being subjected to suppression, intimidation, subjugation, and dehumanization by successive governments in Nigeria which had been dominated by the Fulani tribe. The systematic decimation reached a crescendo as the current Fulani-dominated government headed by former Military general, Muhammadu Buhari flooded Western Nigeria with war mercenaries from neighbouring Chad, Niger Republic, Mali, and Libya many of who currently inhabit in bushes in the Yoruba dominated Western Nigeria engaging in nefarious activities, killing, kidnapping and maiming innocent citizens. Igboho has stood against the brutality and made efforts to dislodge the invaders from Southwest bushes. He has also embarked on staging peaceful rallies to demonstrate to the World how his people are being treated by the Fulani government led by Muhammadu Buhari.