Sunday Adeyemo, a self-styled Yoruba activist also known as Sunday Igboho, has tackled the State Security Service (SSS), over the invasion of his home in a bid to effect his arrest.
Igboho also said the security operatives planted ammunition in his house in order to persecute him. The Yoruba nation agitator made this known in a statement by his spokesperson, Olayemi Koiki, on Friday.
Igboho said he is being persecuted by the federal government for his “resistance to the incessant killings, raping and kidnapping of my people in South-west Nigeria by armed Fulani herdsmen.
“The failure of President Muhammadu Buhari and his government to curb the criminal activities of the murderous herdsmen necessitated my intervention.
“I ordinarily would not have intervened if the government had lived up to its responsibility of securing the Southwest and Nigeria at large from the criminal activities of the President’s ethnic men.
“Of public knowledge, my intervention has not let to any loss of life or bloodshed. My means of curbing criminality is to chase the criminal Fulani herdsmen out of their hideouts in company of the people of the affected communities.
“It is because of the foreseen government persecution that videos of such interventions were transmitted live on social media. Nigerians, the security operatives, and the presidency are aware that I have never moved against the peaceful Fulani’s and other tribes living peacefully in the Southwest. My unjust persecution — for defending my people and community — is therefore surprising and unwarranted.”
Igboho further said the security operatives who invaded his home “either planted the ammunitions being paraded in the media in my home or harvested them from their armoury to frame me. The arms paraded are not mine, they are government magic. I protect myself with traditional powers, not with guns.
“Federal government framed me up and the sequence of events brings the truth bare. Why would the security agents invade my home at night and destroy my surveillance cameras before carrying out their operation if not that they had an ulterior motive?
“In this modern age of technological advancement, why did the security operatives not put on body cameras to record their activities from the point of entry to their time of exit? Their action is a testament that the Buhari regime is incapable of using desperate approaches to silence peaceful social interventions.”
Igboho described himself as a law-abiding citizen “without blemish.”
“I advise President Buhari to, in the interest of Nigerians that voted him to power, order his henchmen to desist from using falsehood and unholy tactics to soil my name. Such energy should be devoted to taming the herdsmen and bandits freely committing heinous crimes across Nigeria with impunity because their kinsman is in power.
“Yoruba people would not be demanding for a nation if the government had lived up to its responsibilities. Self-determination is not a crime and all efforts to silence us and acquire our ancestral land for local and foreign criminal herdsmen will fail.”
Igboho’s house, located in Soka, Ibadan, capital of Oyo State was invaded around 1:00 a.m. on Thursday. His vehicles, including his G-wagon, Prado Jeep, and some valuable properties including furniture and windows were reportedly destroyed.
The spokesperson of SSS, Peter Afunaya, who confirmed the raid in a press conference in Abuja said a total of seven AK 47 rifles were recovered, alongside pump action guns and 5,000 rounds of ammunition including other weapons.
