By Chinelo Obogo
An Oyo State High court has granted an ex-parte motion restraining the Department of State Services(DSS) and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) from arresting, intimidating or freezing any bank account belonging to Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho.
Justice Ladiean Akintola gave the order following an ex-parte motion moved by Igboho’s lawyer Yomi Aliu (SAN) at the court on Wednesday.
“The court has ordered that Igboho must not be arrested, detained or killed in the next 14 days and also that his account should not be blocked,” Aliu said after the case. The court later adjourned the suit till August 18.
About three weeks after he was declared wanted by the Department of State Security (DSS), the Benin Republic Police arrested Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho last month. The campaigner for Yoruba self-determination and leader of Ilana Oodua, was arrested while attempting to travel to Germany at Cardinal Bernardin International Airport in Cotonou.
Since his arrest, he has been charged by the Benin government with obtaining fake passports and has appeared before a prosecutor at the country’s Court of Appeal.
Earlier in June, DSS operatives invaded Igboho’s house, located in Soka, Ibadan, capital of Oyo State around 1:00 a.m. Two of his vehicles and some valuable properties were destroyed in the process. The spokesperson of the DSS, Peter Afunnaya, claimed that seven AK 47 rifles, pump action guns and 5,000 rounds of ammunition were recovered from his house after a “hot gun duel between them and Igboho’s guards”. The DSS also admitted that two of Igboho’s men were killed in the process while a security agent was shot on the right hand. But Igboho denied owning the weapons, saying that they were not his and that security operatives planted them in his house to implicate him.
Igboho’s Ilana Oodua has led rallies in Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti, calling for the actualization of an independent and sovereign country for the Yoruba ethnic group and the eviction of herdsmen from South-west states. He planned to hold the rally in Lagos on July 3 but his home was invaded 72 hours to the planned date.