BY QUADRI SALIU
Professor Wole Soyinka, the Nobel laureate has urged the Republic of Benin to release Sunday Igboho, the Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, adding that he didn’t commit any crime against Nigeria.
The playwright told journalists in Lagos on Friday during an interactive session titled, “Sanctions on the loose: Chasing the gnat with a sledgehammer,”.
The Nobel laureate said Igboho’s offence was resisting the tyranny of Fulani herdsmen against his people in Oyo State.
Soyinka said, “I refuse to believe that Igboho committed any offence except agitating against Fulani tyranny on his people. He peacefully demonstrated his position. I can’t consider that to be decided a criminal. Agitating for secession is not a criminal act as long as it’s done peacefully. You don’t have to criminalise that.”
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Recall that men of the Department of State Services on July 1, 2021, raided the Ibadan, Oyo State, home of the activist, killed two and arrested 12 of his aides.
Igboho later fled to the Republic of Benin where he was arrested alongside his wife on July 19, 2021, by the International Criminal Police Organisation at the Cadjehoun Airport in Cotonou on their way to Germany.
His wife, Ropo, was released and Igboho is facing illegal migration charges in the West African country and seeking asylum to evade Federal Government request for his extradition to face allegations of stockpiling arms which he had denied.
