Yoruba Leaders Have Failed Sunday Igboho – Olajengbesi

A counsel to Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Igboho, Pelumi Olajengbesi, has condemned South-West leaders for not standing by his client who is detained in the Benin Republic.

Olajengbesi on Sunday said leaders in the region should learn from South-East leaders who recently visited President Muhammadu Buhari to demand the release of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

The IPOB leader and Igboho are agitating for the secession of the South-East zone and the South-West zone respectively from Nigeria.

The Buhari government had clamped down on the agitators which have seen Kanu held in the custody of the Department of State Services, and Igboho, in detention in the Benin Republic while fleeing.

Buhari, however, on Friday said he would consider the demand of the Igbo leaders when he was visited in Aso Rock in Abuja.

The president in his statement said, “You’ve made an extremely difficult demand on me as leader of this country. The implication of your request is very serious. In the last six years, since I became President, nobody would say I have confronted or interfered in the work of the Judiciary.

“When Kanu jumped bail, got arrested and was brought back to Nigeria, I said the best thing was to subject him to the system. Let him make his case in court, instead of giving very negative impressions of the country from the outside. I will consider your demand, but it is a heavy one.”

Olajengbesi in a statement on Sunday said Yoruba leaders should learn from Igbo elders who showed “communal and tribal loyalty to Kanu”

The statement was titled, ‘Sunday Igboho & Nnamdi Kanu’s Travail: Yoruba Leaders Need To Learn From The Igbos’.

The statement read in part, “I speak with no hesitation about Chief Sunday Igboho whose ordeal parallels that of Mr Nnamdi Kanu in original intent, blackmail and oppression by the powers that be. Unlike the latter whose kinsmen and kiths have rallied around in an unequivocal display of affection and compassion, Chief Sunday Igboho and his associates continue to be hounded like orphans without roots and bearing.

“With all due respect to the elders and leaders of the Yoruba tribe and without an iota of spite, the Yoruba Leaders have failed Chief Sunday Igboho and his aides. Those on whom the Yorubas have pled fealty as Leaders, Kings, Kingmakers and Bearers of the Authority of the Tribe have turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the sufferings and agony of Chief Sunday Igboho whose seeming offence is seeking a better lot for his people.

“Therefore, and as a matter of urgency, Yoruba Leaders must urgently borrow a leaf from Igbo Leaders by approaching President Buhari to secure the liberty of Chief Sunday Igboho and that of all his associates from the contrived charges against them.”