Lead counsel for arrested Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo better known as Sunday Igboho, has described as inhuman, the treatment his client is being subjected to in the custody of the police in Benin Republic.
Recall that Igboho and his wife were arrested at Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou, Benin Republic around 8pm on Monday. They were about to catch a flight to Germany before Interpol apprehended them.
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Department of State Services raided Igboho’s Ibadan residence in the Soka area on July 1, 2021, arrested about 12 of his aides and killed two of them in a gun duel.
Federal Government then placed Nigeria Immigration Service and Nigeria Customs Service on alert to stop Igboho from leaving the country.
Chief Yomi Alliyu SAN stated this on Tuesday, saying that his client was chained inside the cell, tortured on the hand and forced to cry like a baby.
Read Also: Yoruba Nation Agitator, Sunday Igboho Reportedly Arrested In Cotonou
The lawyer, in a statement he released on Tuesday, claimed that Igboho is being treated less than an animal in police custody, based on what he termed “order from above,” and may appear before a court today for an extradition order.
He said Igboho’s wife, Ropo, a German citizen, who was arrested together with the activist, was also kept in a separate cell by the police in the neighbouring country.
The senior advocate, who described the arrest of his client as shocking, urged the government of Germany, Benin Republic and the international community “to rise up and curb the impunity of the Nigerian Government by refusing any application for extradition of our Client who already has application before the International Criminal Court duly acknowledged”.
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Alliyu expressed;
Just about three minutes ago, I got a call from a reliable source from the authorities in the Republic of Benin that Sunday Igboho has been put in a very dehumanising condition in a police cell in Cotonou.
The source told me that they are under instruction by an order from the above that Igboho should be chained like an animal waiting to be slaughtered. He told me that Igboho was tightly chained to the floor and he is in serious pains.
He stated;
While I was talking to the source by telephone, I can hear our client crying and asking that the chains be removed and that he is in pains. But I can hear one officer telling him that they cannot remove the chains as they are acting on instruction.
Alliyu insisted that the extradition order being sought by the Nigerian authorities may not likely sail through, given the status of Igboho as a political offender.
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The counsel expressed;
I know that our client, Chief Sunday Adeyemo (aka Sunday Igboho Oosa), would be taken to a court in Cotonou, the capital of the Republic of Benin, tomorrow [today].
The Nigerian authorities and security operatives that arrested him would be approaching the court for an extradition order to bring Sunday Igboho back to Nigeria.
But it is not likely that the extradition order being sought for would sail through. This is because of the status of our client as a political offender who enjoys immunity against extradition. Like I said in a press release earlier today, even his arrest by security operatives was against the political nature of his offence.
He expressed;
There is an existing ex- tradition treaty between four West African countries of Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and Benin Republic, which grants Igboho immunity from being extradited from the Republic of Benin.
The Extradition Treaty of 1984 between Togo, Nigeria, Ghana and Republic of Benin excluded political fugitives. It also states that where the fugitive will not get justice because of discrimination and/ or undue delay in prosecution, the host country should not release the fugitive.
Article 20 of African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights to which the four countries are signatories made agitation for self-determination a fundamental right to be protected by all countries.
