Legal luminary, Femi Falana SAN, says the Benin Republic government refused to put self-styled activist, Sunday Adeyemi, popularly called Sunday Igboho, on a waiting plane during the time of his arrest in the French-speaking country in July.
According to Falana, in an interview with BBC News Yoruba published on Tuesday, the administration of President Patrice Talon made the Muhammadu Buhari-led Nigerian Federal Government understand that obeying the law is sacrosanct to them.
“The Nigerian government asked the Benin Republic government to repatriate Sunday Igboho. In fact, we heard they had even sent an aircraft to be used to bring him down to Abuja. The Benin government made its Nigerian counterpart to understand that this is not a lawless society,” Falana said while speaking in Yoruba language.
“Benin Republic told Nigeria: ‘we are heading to court. Without us going to court, we cannot hand Igboho over to you’. This is the reason why Igboho’s case is ongoing over there. And that is how it is supposed to be under the law.
“The judge will critically look into Nigeria’s demands, why Nigeria wants to repatriate Igboho from Cotonou to Abuja. That is what the law of Benin says; in fact that is what the Nigerian law also says.”
Igboho was the arrowhead of a movement tackling herdsmen, who were terrorising farmers and rural dwellers, particularly in Ibarapa area of Oyo State.
His movement later transmogrified into one agitating for the creation of a Yoruba nation.
It appears the Nigerian government has blood sucking dragons and who like bad than good. Starting with Mr Sunday Igboho, this man did not just jumped into the bush and began to kill people. It was as a result of herdsmen killing his people that he launched attack on them. In Nigeria law one has right to defend what belongs to him. The big question is were there no herdsmen in Nigeria before? There were and were only with Shepherd stick and at times with knife. But where do this category of Fulani herdsmen immerged from who carry automatic weapons? This groups of herdsmen move from place to place kill,rob, rape etc and other atrocities; yet the government sees,hears but do nothing about it. Are the herdsmen sacred cows? Even if they are, everyone has right to life. How is the government targeting those standing for their right instead of the wrong . .A right thinking govt.ought to listen to what the people are saying. There had been calls for referendum as to put heads together for a way forward but govt keep mute. The federal govt has made the nation to look stupid. But this is a nation that it’s known all over the world as wise, and intelligent people
This case Remind me of a poem written by P.O.C Umeh-Ambassador of Poverty.
Ambassadors of poverty are
The corrupt masters of the economy
With their head abroad
And anus at home
Patriots in reverse order
Determined merchants of loots
Who boost the economy of their colonial order
To impoverish brothers and sisters at home
Ambassadors of poverty are
The saviours of the people
Office loafers in the guise of workers
Barons of incompetence
With kleptomaniac fingers
And suckling filaments
Position occupants and enemies of service
Locked in the corrosive war of corruption
With their people’s treasury
And killing their future
Ambassadors of poverty are
The dubious sit tight patriots
Frustrating the corporate will of their followers
The beleaguered,hungry and famished owners of the land
People priced out of their conscience and power
Incapacitated by destitution
Unable to withstand the temptation
Of crispy mints and food aroma
Ambassadors of poverty are
The political elites
In air conditioned chambers
And exotic cars
With tearful stories of rip offs
Tucked away from
Their impoverish constituencies
Lying prostrate
With death traps for roads
Mud for water
Candle for light
Underneath trees as schools
Rat for protein
Fasting as food
And alibi as governance
Ambassadors of poverty are
The rancorous elites In battle of supremacy
For the control of power
And their people’s wealth
Mowing down their own
With white man’s machine
Oiled by the prosperity of black patronage
Counterpoised by deprivations
As the corpses of their able-bodied men
Women and children lie un-mourn
In shallow graves
In their fallow farmlands
Long abandoned
Ambassadors of poverty are
The round trippers
The elusive importers
Of unseen goods and services
Sand inclusive
Who trip the economy down
By tricking form M
For harvest of dollars as import
When their people see neither money nor food
Ambassadors of poverty are
The able-bodied men on the street
Without motives,without vision,without mission
Men fit for the farm
But glued to the city
Hungry and desperate
Constituting willing tools in the hands
Of political overlords
For mission of vendetta
Against political foes
In their fight for power
Ambassadors of poverty are
Those who actions and inactions
Reduce their people’s expectation to nothingness
Those who antecedents
Have lost the spark to inspire
While their people lie in surrender
Having been defeated by poverty
Ambassadors of poverty are
All of us whose in-actions
Steal our collective joy
Because of what we should do
Which we never do
As we bargain away
Our conscience in the market place
Under the weight of poverty
To assuage our hunger
And our master’s will
Is it just a coincidence that the problems we’re facing in our so called great country Nigeria has been outlined in a poem of nine stanzas? What are we doing to correct this? Are we sitting down and doing nothing? Have we asked ourselves which way forward Nigeria. We were told we youths are the leaders of tomorrow,have we asked ourselves when that tomorrow will come? What are we doing to stop the corruption,it is said that if we can’t stop it then we should join in,for how long are we going to continue joining in. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a step,we can change this by taking that first step,a step where we have a choice,a step where we fight for our rights,a step where we start voicing out our opinions,you might say they won’t listen, yes they won’t listen and the reason is because it’s only few of us that are bold enough to let our voices be heard but when we stand together in unity trust me they(the government) will be forced to listen. United we stand divided we fall. I rest my case.
And we suppose the Learned SAN was around and privy to all that transpired between Benin Republic and Nigerian. And he’s agreed that his Nigeria is a “lawless” country as opposed to Benin Republic.