Ibrahim Salami, one of the Cotonou-based lawyers of Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, has lamented that the police in Benin Republic had thrown his client into a locked cell still in handcuffs.
Salami spoke today, July 24 in a Facebook Live Interview with BBC News Yoruba.
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 said that the Nigerian Government’s representatives told the court that Igboho is a gunrunner who tried to divide Nigeria.
A Beninise court had ruled on Thursday that Igboho’s Germany-based wife, Ropo, should be released unconditionally as there were no charges against her.
The lawyer had also revealed that Igboho was arrested and was in possession of both the Nigerian and German passports.
Salami told BBC Yoruba: “It is not true that Benin Republic passport was found on Sunday Igboho when he was arrested.
“What was found on him were Nigerian and German passport. His wife had only her German passport on her at the point of arrest.”
The Department of State Services (DSS) had presented seven AK-47 rifles allegedly recovered during the raid on Igboho’s house on July 1.
Other items recovered are three pump-action guns, 30 fully charged AK-47 magazines, 5,000 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, five cutlasses, one jack-knife, one pen knife, two pistol holsters, a pair of binoculars, a wallet containing $5, local and international driving licences in his name, ATM cards, a German residence permit No. YO2N6K1NY bearing his name, two whistles, 50 cartridges and 18 walkie-talkies.
Three charm jackets/traditional body armour, two laptops, one Toshiba and one Compaq laptop, Igboho’s passport and those of his aides were also recovered.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government had on July 17, said that Sunday Igboho is trying to acquire a new passport to flee the country and that the government had placed Igboho on the stop-list in order to facilitate his arrest.
It directed the security agencies to apprehend him anywhere he is found.
In the security circle, a person whose name is on the stop-list is denied all constitutional rights and privileges a citizen is entitled to.
The Federal Government’s directive against Igboho was contained in a letter by the Nigeria Immigration Service dated July 9, 2021, addressed to the Director-General, Department of State Services, the Inspector General of Police and the DG, National Intelligence Agency.
Igboho, who spearheads the separatist agitation for the Yoruba Nation, had been declared wanted by the Department of State Services on allegations of stockpiling arms to destabilise the country, which he has since denied.
