By Mudiaga Affe, Idu Jude and Cajetan Mmuta
As the trial of Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Igboho continues in the Benin Republic, Nigerians have urged the authorities to handle the matter with utmost caution and diplomacy.

This is coming a few days after the arrest of Igboho, a Yoruba nation agitator, at the Cardinal Bernardin International Airport, Cotonou, Benin Republic.

The legal battle to either extradite him to Nigeria or allow him to continue his journey to Germany is getting protracted as the case has been adjourned to Monday (today).

Controversy over his arrest and planned extradition heightened over the weekend, with many Nigerians expressing divergent opinions on the matter.

Recall that another separatist agitator, Nnamdi Kanu, was only a few weeks ago, forcibly returned to the country to face charges bordering on treason.

Elder statesman, Ayo Adebanjo; President of the Nigeria Bar Association, Olumide Akpata; a former governor of Oyo State, Rasheed Ladoja; an emeritus professor of political science, Femi Otubanjo; Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome and Gabriel Ofodile, are among eminent personalities, who spoke on the issue.

President of NBA, Akpata, said it was legally wrong for the rights of Nigerian citizens to be trampled upon because they protested for their rights.

“Both Nnamdi Kanu or Sunday Igboho do not deserve the maltreatment and the Nigeria Bar Association has earlier condemned the wrong move by the Federal Government.

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“The fact here is not just the arrest of both agitators but the wrong step in arresting individuals with another country’s passport. The said Nnamdi Kanu, is a British citizen. Another issue is the way the federal government is going about the whole thing with fewer regard to international bilateral law or the protection of Nigerian diplomatic image among nations.

“This Buhari administration would have changed the perception about Nigeria from positive to negative because these recent moves totally could severe our relationship with many nations, especially with our colonial master, Britain.”

Akpata said as an association founded to defend the rule of law, the NBA would continue to champion and defend the rights of every Nigerian citizen and group.

He added, “Nigerians have the right to peaceful protest, make lawful demands recognized under the constitution or international charters applicable to Nigeria, and the right to enjoy the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise by a court in a free and fair trial.”

Also, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Gabriel Ofodile, said secessionist movements all over the world were never criminalized because it was the right of citizens to decide where to leave or call his/her country.

The SAN declared, “People choose adopted nations far from their original country. Such gives them the right to have dual citizenship. So, it is a decision made by individuals on how they lead their lives.

“It is also the right of people to seek a separation from the original country for a new one and I don’t think such individuals deserve being imprisoned or charged for treason like we are witnessing in the case of Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho, both leading agitators for a separate nation.

“My major concern now is the way professional colleagues trade tackles on issues like the matter under review. I think it should not be so because we should have known better than dancing with the ilk in the military junta.

“So, if things are not handled properly to calm the nerves of the agitators and their followers, we would likely breed some monsters that would hunt the reputations of this country for so many years to come.”

‘Buhari has declared war on Yoruba’
For the leader of the Yoruba social-cultural group, Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo, President Muhammadu Buhari has declared war on the Yoruba people following Igboho’s planned extradition.

Adebanjo said, “Yoruba worldwide should not keep quiet. They should ensure that Sunday Igboho is not extradited to Nigeria and if they bring him back, the Yoruba should ensure that he is not badly tortured or worse. They have declared war on our people.”

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Contributing, a rights activist, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), queried why the Buhari government was finding it difficult to deal with bandits in the north but was effective in arresting agitators from the south.

“The Buhari’s government paradoxically appears helpless when it comes to fighting AK-47 wielding bandits, Boko Haram, and other deadly insurgents, including ransom-taking kidnappers, who are almost kidnapping the very heart and soul of Nigeria daily. The Nigerian nation appears captured by non-state actors.
“The same government that is suddenly effective in the case of Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho, while they have never been able to capture kidnappers, bandits, and Boko Haram that are daily ravaging us, turning Nigeria into a sprawling field of human carnage. They take ransom. Innocent school children are paid for.
“Where is the same government when kidnappers are demanding that the parents of kidnapped children should now be feeding them in

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their kidnap dens? But, it suddenly becomes effective and audacious when it comes to arresting and even ambushing and attacking in their very homes, self-determination activists and crusaders. I am not impressed with this at all”, the Ozekhome noted in a statement.

Similarly, a public affairs analyst, Kunle Sani, frowned on the approach adopted by the federal government in the matter.

Noting that the country’s unity is now fragile, Sani said, “It would take years of reconciliation to amend the divisions or treat all the wounds caused by this government.”

Another social critic, Deji Adeyanju, toed Ozekhome’s line, saying, “They cannot arrest terrorists who kill people weekly and even shoot down our fighter jets. Self-determination is not a crime. They are still standing with killer herdsmen who have killed over 20,000 Nigerians under this government and even asking that everyone should give them land to trample upon as if the business is a Federal Government investment.”

Tread with caution- Otubanjo, Ladoja
However, as many stakeholders fault the method adopted by the authorities, Otubanjo said there was the need to handle the Kanu and Igboho cases cautiously.

The academic, who cautioned against dragging agitators to the Department of State Service facility, said the torture they experience before security operatives were making them attempt to beat the law.

Otubanjo said, “The Federal Government is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, it has a very difficult choice. As a government, it must be seen to be pursuing the rule of law by upholding the integrity of the laws of the country and I can see that it is the preferred perspective.

“But the other political perspective is that Igboho carries the sentiment of a sizeable section of the country and pursuing him in the court to the point of getting him repatriated is attracting comments from the civilian portion of the country.

“However, I think that the government will pursue the option of the rule of law largely because it would not want to set some precedent that may be seen as weakening the authority of the state so that if somebody can shout and mobilize people you then allow him to go in the name of compromises. What I worry about, however, is how the arrest is managed.
“Like in the case of Nnamdi Kanu, what is worrisome is that these people are being taken to the Department of State Service (DSS). Unfortunately, it should not be the case and that is why there is so much worry about wanting to run away.

“If they were with the police and treated the normal way in which people who commit crimes are treated, I can imagine that there will be less inclined towards beating the law and want to travel out. In the case of Kanu, he was outside the country doing what he did, but Igboho is not in that category yet, all he had done was agitating for a separate nation and mobilizing for demonstrations.

“So, I think those things can be handled by the court. Unfortunately, there is a public perception that once taken to the DSS facility, you will be tortured and maltreated. This is a democratic society. This is not a DSS matter, we should learn to obey our rules by taking people to the appropriate places where they will be accorded their democratic rights and where they will not be afraid to stand before the law.

“Having said that, Igboho has fled the country and become a fugitive, which is an offense in itself. I learned he fled with a forged Beninese passport and these are complications. So, there is a limit to which you can compromise and give way to ethnic sentiments.

“I think the Federal Government will have to pursue it to a logical conclusion and hopefully if they can bring him back, he should be tried fairly. If they are not able to bring him back, then Igboho would have transformed himself into a fugitive who will not be able to come back to his country to pursue his dreams.”
Ladoja also advised the Federal Government to tread carefully in Igboho’s case.

The former governor said, “I want to appeal to the authorities to grant Igboho and Kanu amnesty just as some members of the Boko Haram sect were given amnesty.

“Igboho and Kanu are creations of the Federal Government because whenever they arrested herdsmen who were killing their people, the Federal Government never acted. That was why those two people came up to defend their people.

“Boko Haram members that were arrested a year ago by the government have been released to the Borno State Government. The Federal Government created Sunday Igboho in the context of the Igangan massacre,” he said.
A legal practitioner at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, Anambra State, Igwe Chika, stated that Igboho’s case had a political undertone.

He noted, “Igboho) was trying to evade arrest in Nigeria because there was an attack on his house. Nobody can confirm whether there was a warrant for his arrest or whether the police acted on their own.

“The police also said they got some arms and ammunition in his house, an offense of illegal possession of firearms which is punishable in the country.

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“Now, he moved into the Benin Republic with his wife, because his wife is a German. Maybe it would have been easier for them to travel from there but the question is whether they entered the Benin Republic legally because there are immigration laws that regulate how people enter and leave any country.
“Even in the ECOWAS law, there are documentations that ought to have been done. Of course, the matter is already in court and you cannot pre-empt the court until after the trial. However, if it is established that he entered Benin illegally, he will likely be repatriated to Nigeria. But if he is repatriated, he will likely be arrested because they are looking for him”.

Also, Chairman of the International Society for Civil Liberties Organisation and Rule of Law (InterSociety), Emeka Umeagbalasi, said the Igboho’s saga was a “clear case of multiple laws for different sets of people”.

He said, “The case involving Sunday Igboho and Nnamdi Kanu have similarities. It boils down to a country that pretends to be one, with the law designed in such a way that her citizens are equal before the law, whereas in practice it’s not so.

“In principle, the country claims to operate one law but in practice, it operates two or three laws. Here, there are persons when they conflict with the law, they become untouchable, whereas when others conflict, the law will be visited ferociously on them.”

“That is the case. The circumstances of the arrest of Igboho and Kanu are different, especially as that of the former was made public but in the case of the latter, he was forcibly brought home. The government has decided to follow the law in the case of Igboho but in that of Kanu, the authorities decided to use the crooked method of the law.”