Yoruba nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, is safer in neighbouring Benin Republic than in Nigeria, one of his lawyers said on Saturday.
“He (Igboho) is safer in Benin,” Ibrahim David Salami told international news agency AFP. “He is not at all safe in Nigeria. Sending him to Nigeria means certain death.”
Channels Television had reported that armed security men stormed Igboho’s residence in Ibadan on July 1, an incident that resulted in a firefight that sparked tension in the Soka area of the Oyo State capital.
Hours later, the Department of State Services (DSS) claimed responsibility in a statement, saying the invasion was a raid by a joint team of security operatives.
It claimed that Igboho and others plotted to wage a violent insurrection against the Nigerian State and asked the Yoruba nation agitator to turn himself in at the nearest security agency.
Igboho’s associates arrested by the DSS were later paraded and detained for over two months despite the ruling of a Federal High Court in Abuja ordering their release.
The Yoruba nation agitator, on the other hand, fled the country to Benin but was later arrested by authorities en route to Germany.
While the Federal Government is making effort to extradite him, Salami insisted that Nigerian authorities have yet to officially begin the process.
“What we feared at the start was an extradition request but there is no such demand,” the lawyer said.
“The fact that he is being investigated for a violation that could have been committed on Beninese territory is a hurdle to an extradition request as this case will first have to be sorted out.”
