Beninese Court Sends Sunday Igboho Back To Detention

 

Cour De’Appel De Cotonou has returned Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popular known as Sunday Igboho, to detention pending further investigation.

The activist was returned to cell after a 13-hour hearing, which ended around 11:20 pm on Monday.

The case was heard behind closed doors as the court limited attendance to lawyers, Igboho’s wife, Ropo, and a few others.

Journalists and Igboho’s supporters who thronged the court in their large numbers were denied access.

The Court President, as proceedings continued, called the Police in to control journalists and supporters for decorum.

Nigerian authorities want Igboho repatriated. He is accused of stockpiling weapons and threatening the federal government and security agencies.

Before his arrest, the presidency said the separatist was carrying out acts of terror and disturbing the peace under the guise of protecting fellow kinsmen.

Igboho was incriminated for “hate speeches,” alleged attempt to build an armoury as well as plan to undermine the unity of Nigeria.

“Assault weapons are not tools of peace loving people. Regardless of who they are and where they are from, the Security Agencies should treat them all the same,” President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu had said.

Recall that Igboho and his wife were arrested at the Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou around 8pm on July 19, 2021, while they tried to catch a flight to Germany through an Air France plane. But the court, last Thursday, ordered the release of his wife but returned Igboho to police cell.

The secret police on July 1, 2021, had raided his house, killed two of his associates and arrested about 12 of them.