A legal luminary, Chief Niyi Akintola SAN has cautioned government against demonising Yoruba Nation campaigner, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly called Sunday Igboho, saying no criminal charges have been preferred against him in any court in the country.
Akintola made the disclosure in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Saturday, during an interview on a privately owned radio station, Fresh FM.
He stressed that the travail of Igboho remains the travail of every Yoruba person, saying his campaign for Yoruba self-determination is lawful under the Geneva Convention of 1949.
He lampooned officials of the Department of State Service (SSS) over the Gestapo manner they invaded Igboho’s residence on July 1, saying they have shot themselves in the foot. By allegedly blocking the CCTV cameras at his residence during the night raid, the DSS also blocked evidence to support its claim that the guns paraded alongside the 12 arrested aides of the Yoruba Nation agitator were actually kept by him.
Asked why the Yoruba intelligentsia have not been speaking on the ordeal of Igboho at the hands of the Federal Government, he said the struggle by Igboho, though legitimate, lacks the requisite intellectual flavour.
He added that although the Yoruba elite were initially avoiding being blackmailed, they are now working underground to help Igboho out of his present condition.
He gave examples of freedom fighters like Nelson Mandela who were vilified by authorities in their countries but later became national heroes, assuring the Yoruba people that Igboho would not be abandoned in his hour of need.
