DSS Raids Igboho’s House, Declares Him Wanted

Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja and Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

The Department of State Services (DSS) said last night that it raided the residence of the Yoruba activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, accusing him and his associates of planning a violent insurrection against the state.

The secret police said its operatives raided his residence in Soka, Ibadan yesterday and arrested 13 of his associates.

It said operatives recovered seven AK-47 assault rifles, 30 fully charged AK-47 magazines and 5,000 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition.

Parading the suspects, the Public Relations Officer of the DSS, Dr. Peter Afunanya, said Igboho, in the course of agitation for self-determination, had become well-armed and a threat to public order.

He said: “The agency wishes to inform Nigerians and the world that Sunday Igboho and his group, in the guise of campaign for self-determination, have become well-armed and determined to undermine public order.

“This, the arrests and seizures are, no doubt, a confirmation of a grand plan by Igboho and his cohorts to wage a violent insurrection against the Nigerian State.”

The agency also alerted “foreign missions and licensing authorities within and outside Nigeria about this development and the possibility that Igboho could declare some of his personal permit and identity cards missing in order to seek their replacement.”

Afunanya said the agency needed to inform stakeholders that the five AK-47 assault rifles recovered from the building were suspected to be those collected by Igboho’s men from Nigerian Customs and Immigration personnel at Idi Iroko, Ogun State.

He said his associates engaged the operatives in a gun duel.

He said: “The gun duel, which lasted for an hour offered Igboho the chance to escape. Sunday Adeyemo a.k.a Sunday Igboho is now on the run. Igboho may run as far as he can. He may hide as long as he wants. He might have attacked security operatives as his strength carried him.

“But this will be the end of his shenanigans. Soon, he will not have a hiding place. His strength will surely fail him and the law will catch up with him. The law may be slow. But it will be steady.”

He advised Igboho to turn himself into the nearest security agency, calling also on those cheering and eulogising him to appeal to or advise him to do the needful.

“He should surrender himself to the appropriate authorities. He or anyone can never be above the law. Meanwhile, those arrested will be charged accordingly,” he said

Afenifere, Others Kick

Apparently thinking that the raid was an unlawful attack, the pan Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere; the umbrella body of Yoruba self-determination groups, Ilana Omo Oodua (IOO); a former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode; and the Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Chief Gani Adams, yesterday condemned the attack on Igboho’s residence.

While Adams claimed that eight people were killed, an aide to Igboho put the death toll at two.

“The situation now is very bad. Two Yoruba sons have been killed in the house of Chief Sunday Igboho. The two bodies have been taken away by the military. We do not know of the location where they were taken to,” Igboho’s spokesman, Mr. Olayomi Koiki, said.

Those who lost their lives were said to be relatives of Igboho.

There were bloodstains on the floor of the premises as well as some of the rooms, indicating that some persons were hit by bullets.

There were also expended bullets at the front of the house and also on the premises.

Some vehicles destroyed by bullets included a Sienna bus branded with pictures of Prof. Banji Akintoye and Igboho.

Reacting to the incident, Afenifere and IOO had accused the federal government of being behind the attack.

Afenifere in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Jare Ajayi, said the manner of the attack indicated culpability on the part of the government.

It said: “We are forced into this deduction for a number of reasons. Firstly, eyewitness accounts indicated that the vehicles and uniforms of the attackers were that of the security agencies. Secondly, the failure of security agencies to confront the attackers further implicated the government. It was reported that the attack lasted for more than three hours. “Igboho’s residence is in a highly-populated area within minutes’ reach to surrounding police stations. That no rescue team came from any of the police units, including the DSS office in Ibadan for the several hours that the attack lasted, makes it difficult not to believe that the government is complicit in the attack”.

In his reaction, Fani-Kayode said two people were killed and their bodies were taken away with a large number of others arrested.

He added that Igboho’s passport and travel documents were stolen together with his phones, his personal effects, computers and N2 million.

He said: “There were about 100 soldiers and security agents involved and Sunday managed to escape after his boys shielded him from the bullets. They insisted that he should leave whilst they resisted the attack as best as they could and with few numbers.

“My question is this: what has this man done to deserve this? There is nothing he has been asked to do in terms of keeping the peace in the South-west by the federal government and the Yoruba elders that he has not done, including guaranteeing the security and safety of the local Hausa-Fulani population, building bridges, keeping the peace and having a dialogue with other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.”

In a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Kehinde Aderemi, Adams said the attack was a ploy to silence Igboho from expressing his views on the state of the nation.

He, however, charged the federal government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the attack and to bring the perpetrators to book.

IOO in a statement by Emeritus Prof. Banji Akintoye, and made available to THISDAY by his Communications Manager, Mr. Maxwell Adeleye, accused the Nigerian Army, accompanied by those he labelled international terrorists hired by the Nigerian state, of attacking Igboho’s home.

Akintoye also alleged that the assailants were all dressed in military uniform and spoke the French language fluently.

He stated that the gunmen killed seven occupants of the building and whisked away Igboho’s wife and others.