The Oodua Worldwide, a Diaspora pro-Yoruba socio-cultural group, on Thursday, September 2, 2021 restated calls for the unconditional and urgent release of Yoruba Nation agitator, Chief Sunday Adeyemo also known as Sunday Igboho and four of his aides still held in detention.
Igboho who was arrested in Cotonou, Benin Republic on July 16, 2021 with his wife, while trying to escape to Germany and has since then been in detention had eight of his arrested aides of released on Monday by the DSS despite been granted bail since August 4, 2021 while four others are still being held in detention. They are: Jamiu Oyetunji, Amudat Babatunde, Bamidele Sunday and Abideen Shittu.
Reacting to the incident, President of the Oodua Worldwide, a global organization with headquarters in Canada, Prince Adewale Julius Ojo, vowed to fast track the release of Igboho and his four aides still in detention while condemning the act saying it was “callous, oppressive, barbaric and smirks of obvious favouritism deliberately skewed to favour a section of the Country against others.”
Ojo said: “The prompt and unconditional release of Igboho is what can give a credible and unbiased face to a Government that is now being seen by many as one with a mission to subdue other nations in Nigeria to favour one.
“The influx of notable Yoruba leaders to the Benin Republic and the overwhelming support for Igboho’s course by a majority of Yoruba in Nigeria are clear proof that he was only a crusader of the mindset of his race, majority of who feel so shortchanged in the present Nigerian arrangement and are clamouring for change.”
Ojo, who was of the opinion that Igboho was fighting a just course which should not attract the big stick wielded by the Federal Government, posited that self-determination agitation is a fundamental human right that should not be met with stiff resistance as being demonstrated by the Nigerian government.
He wondered why a section of the country has been terrorising the citizens of Nigeria unmolested while Igboho, who is carrying out a peaceful agitation would be the target of Government.
The group’s president noted that self-determination agitation is a fundamental human right “that should not be met with stiff resistance as being demonstrated by the Nigerian Government.”
“We are making this urgent demand that Igboho and his remaining aides in detention should be released immediately to avert a looming danger hovering around Nigeria. If swift and urgent steps are not taken on the right track. We still can’t reconcile why known national tormentors, walk the streets of Nigeria unmolested while those on a popular struggle suddenly became objects of intimidation by our Government
“We are appalled that the nation is fast degenerating and no one seems to care about what would become of a once fledgling country which seems to have lost its soul to petty politicking by those ordained to guide it to fruition.
“We maintain that the only way peace and tranquility can reign in Nigeria is for the Federal Government to restore hope that a new Nigeria is still a possibility. Anything to the contrary will pose a serious danger to the unity of our Country, Nigeria.”
“We are miffed by the fact that Nigeria is fast drifting from the path of advancement into the shameful abyss of doom, while the leaders of our beleaguered nation seem to be looking away, or pretending to be.
“We are appalled that the nation is fast degenerating and no one seems to care about what would become of a once fledgling country which seems to have lost its soul to petty politicking by those ordained to guide it to fruition.
“Agitation for self-determination came as a last option after series of pressure for a national dialogue met brick walls, deliberately erected by the thieving leaders who have from independence eaten up the national egg, killed the fowls and are now bent on setting the entire poultry ablaze.
“At this point, we may not be too wrong to assume that this recent attack was a furtherance to the conceived ethnic cleansing by a section of the country who are bent to dominate and force the rest of us to an underdog in a country that constitutionally bequeath egalitarianism, equal rights and justice for all.
“Two souls were reported to have been lost to these marauding attackers, with their corpses taken away. Scores of people, including the wife of Chief Ighoho, were also taken away. This is not only barbaric but sad.
“We therefore state without any fear of intimidation that the Muhammadu Buhari led administration should, without hesitation release all the arrested persons from Chief Sunday Igboho’s house, stop the manhunt on him and pay adequate compensation for the damages visited on his properties. We are Nigerians and we deserve fair treatment for as long as we still remain a nation.
“Yoruba and indeed her people, have been peaceful in the agitation for a Yoruba nation all along. We have adhered with both the Nigerian and International Laws guiding the agitation for self-determination. All our agitations have been peacefully, orderly and lawfully executed. Any action that will show a mistake of our orderliness for cowardice shall be strictly resisted”.
InTv
