The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has asked Igbo leaders to denounce the statement made by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) about Edwin Clark, an Ijaw leader. PANDEF demanded that Igbo leaders tender a public apology to Clark in the interest of “healthy relations” between the south-east and south-south. Clark had said IPOB must be dreaming if it believes the south-south region will join the agitation for the Republic of Biafra. In response, IPOB had said the Ijaw leader cannot decide on whether the Niger Delta will be part of Biafra while adding that his comment is one of the reasons ”Biafrans” are being treated as slaves. Commenting on the development, PANDEF, in a statement issued by Emmanuel Ibok Essien, its national chairman, insisted that the Niger Delta is not part of Biafra, adding that it is “puerile” for IPOB or any group to consider the region in any “arbitrary contraption”. PANDEF noted that the influence of Clark transcends the south-south zones, adding that the Ijaw leader has been playing nationalist roles to “stimulate unity, peace and development in the Niger Delta Region, and Nigeria, at large”. “It is a shame that they cannot differentiate between fact and fantasy. This stupidity would erode any sympathy they had hitherto received from the South-South geo-political zone,” the statement reads. “Let us restate, without any equivocation, that the Niger Delta Region is not part of Biafra and that no inch of the South-South Geopolitical Zone shall be part of any imagined “Republic”. “It’s rather puerile for IPOB or any other group to consider that Niger Delta Region would be part of any arbitrary contraption. If it becomes necessary for the Niger Delta people to pull out of this country, we shall do so, on our terms. “Over the years, the highly respected Chief who was a Federal Minister of Information, and Distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic, has in his capacities as an educationist, politician, public servant, lawyer, lawmaker, community leader and nationalist, continued to play vital roles to stimulate unity, peace and development in the Niger Delta Region, and Nigeria, at large. “Though PANDEF assumes no well-meaning Igbo son or daughter would sanction the aspersion by IPOB on our respected National Leader, however, we would insist that the Leadership of the Igbo Nation denounce the irresponsible statement by IPOB. “And tender a public apology to the Elder Statesman, and, indeed, the entire Niger Delta people, in the interest of healthy relations between the South-East and South-South Zones. Anything short of that would be inferred to be tacit approval of the balderdash of IPOB.”

The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has stated that people are ” working behind the scenes” concerning the arrest and trial of Yoruba Nation activist, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho. The governor made this known while addressing the Press at the Polling Unit 019 Ward 08, Ikoyi II, where he cast his vote during the Local Government/Council Areas election on Saturday. PUNCH Online was live at the venue and our correspondent on ground asked the governor about the presumed silence of South West governors on the arrest of Igboho. In response, the governor explained that “people” are working behind the scenes, stating that the case doesn’t have to be a public conversation. “These are very difficult times for all of us. I can assure you that people are working behind the scenes. “At occasions like this, it’s not by how many Press people you call. “I’m aware that a lot of people have responses that they are doing quietly and privately and it doesn’t have to be a public conversation. The PUNCH earlier reported that the 48-year-old activist was arrested on Monday, July 19, 2021, by the International Criminal Police Organisation at the Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou, Republic of Benin. Igboho was arrested with his Germany-based wife, Ropo, at the airport while they reportedly tried to catch a flight to Germany around 8 pm on Monday. Five days after the arrest and planned extradition of Yoruba Nation agitator, the six governors in the South-West geopolitical zone of Nigeria have kept mum over the matter. The governors are Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), and Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos). Efforts to get the comments of Akeredolu, who is the Chairman of South-West Governors’ Forum, proved abortive as the Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, neither took several calls to his line nor replied a text message sent to his line by our correspondent.

Ibrahim Salami, one of the Cotonou-based lawyers of Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho, has said the police in Benin Republic handcuffed the hands of the activist despite detaining him in a locked cell. Salami spoke on Saturday in a Facebook Live Interview with BBC News Yoruba monitored by The PUNCH. He said, “We are five lawyers handling his case. When we visited Sunday Adeyemo at the police station, he was not beaten but what they did that is alien to the law here is that they handcuffed him inside the police cell after locking the cell. This makes eating and movement within the cell difficult for him to the extent that someone has been helping him in this regard. “Apart from being a lawyer, I am also a professor of law at a university here in Benin Republic. Part of what we teach our students is human rights. Human rights frown at the action of the police. “I called the attention of the police commander and the prosecutor to this but still nothing changed. At the moment, Sunday Igboho’s hands are in chains at the police station. This is not good at all.” Salami also said the Nigerian Government’s representatives told the court that Igboho is a gunrunner who tried to divide Nigeria. The PUNCH had earlier reported that a Beninise court ruled on Thursday that Igboho’s Germany-based wife, Ropo, should be released unconditionally as there were no charges against her. The court, however, ruled that Igboho be remanded in police custody till the next week when sitting would resume in the French-speaking court. The two were arrested at the Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou on Monday while they tried to catch a flight to Germany. Igboho was earlier declared wanted by the Department of State Services for allegedly stockpiling arms, an allegation he denied. The secret police had also raided his house, killed two of his associates and arrested about 12 of them.

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has raised the alarm over an unprovoked attack by the Army against operatives of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) in Enugu. It alleged a combined team of soldiers and security operatives on Friday, July 23, 2021, unleashed an attack against innocent ESN operatives at Akpofu Nkanu forests in Enugu State. In a statement by the Media and Public Relations, Emma Powerful, the group described the attack as unwarranted, stressing the ESN operatives did nothing to deserve the unprovoked action. It maintained the ESN had only been defending the communities in the area against incessant attacks and destruction of their farms by killer herdsmen. The statement reads in part: “The hypocritical Nigerian security agents have failed to protect Biafrans against the incursions by Fulani jihadists. “Yet instead of allowing ESN to defend our ancestral land against terrorists invasion, the Nigeria Army and other security agencies have been unleashed against innocent volunteer security outfit safeguarding the lives of Biafrans. “This is the height of wickedness. NIGERIA is aiding and abating terrorism. Fulani-controlled federal government gives tacit support to terrorists but crushes peaceful agitators. This is wickedness and hypocrisy which God must judge. “The same Fulani terrorists masquerading as herdsmen have for years been kidnapping, raping and killing locals in Nkanu and other communities in Biafra land until December 2020 when ESN was set up to flush them out of our forests. ” Now their real sponsors have come to defend them against ESN by combing the forests in hunt of ESN operatives instead of the terrorists. “Since herdsmen started their killing spree in Biafra land, has any of them been arrested let alone prosecuted by any security agency? “Yet every other day the Army and other security agencies have been hunting for ESN like wild animals. “The cowardly southeast Governors and the evil political elite will still protect them. We aware of security operatives were not ESN. The police officers were not killed by ESN.”

Desperately wanted by the Department of State Services in Nigeria, with an international arrest warrant hanging around his neck, and facing immigration-related offences in Cotonou, the embattled Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, is seeking asylum in the Republic of Benin, Saturday PUNCH has learnt. It was gathered that the 48-year-old activist resorted to the option after he was arrested on Monday, July 19, 2021, by the International Criminal Police Organisation at the Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou, Republic of Benin. Igboho was arrested with his Germany-based wife, Ropo, at the airport while they reportedly tried to catch a flight to Germany around 8 pm on Monday. Although the Cour De’appal De Cotonou ruled on Thursday that Ropo should be released unconditionally as there were no charges against her, Igboho is spending his first weekend in a police cell in Cotonou. He is being tried for migration-related issues after he was allegedly caught with a fake Beninese passport at the point of his departure to Germany through an Air France flight. “He (Igboho) was already at the airport with a passport. The immigration officers suspected his passport to be fake and so they stopped him. A passport was allegedly forged for Igboho in the Benin Republic for the purpose of the Germany trip. At the airport, they discovered he was the one,” a source familiar with the matter told Saturday PUNCH. The source, who craved anonymity, however, said although an application had been filed for Igboho as a political refugee in Germany, processes had also been completed to file another application for asylum for him in Benin Republic. “Igboho has already applied for asylum in Germany and he hopes to file a similar application in Benin Republic in the coming days,” the source said. The source also said that there was the possibility that the Beninese Government would drop the migration-related offences brought against Igboho over alleged forgery of passport. The leader of Igboho’s legal team, Yomi Alliyu (SAN), had also in a statement noted that his client could not be extradited because the 1984 Extradition Treaty between Nigeria, Benin and two other countries excluded political refugees like Igboho. Meanwhile, upon their arrest, Igboho and his wife were detained in police custody in Cotonou but the Cour De’appal De Cotonou ruled on Thursday that Ropo should be released unconditionally as there were no charges against her. The court session lasted for about six hours with intermittent breaks. The court, however, ruled that Igboho be remanded in police custody till the next date of adjournment which is likely to be next week. Credit: Punch