AKINWUNMI KING; TITILOPE JOSEPH

A pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Egbe Omo Yoruba in North America (EOYNA), has welcomed the release of Yoru­ba nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Ighoho, from detention in the Republic of Benin.

The body, which is the Na­tional Association of Yoruba Descendants in North Ameri­ca, also commended the Yoru­ba leaders at home and in diaspora for standing behind Igboho all through his days in detention.

Igboho, who was arrested on July 19, 2021, by the govern­ment of Benin Republic, had spent over 231 days in prison. He was, however, released on Monday by the government of Benin and handed over to Professor Banji Akintoye and a French language expert/ deputy Alana of Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide, Professor Wale Adeniran.

Speaking on the develop­ment, National President of Egbe Omo Yoruba, Dr. Duro­jaye Akndutire, applauded Igboho’s legal team for doing a thorough job to secure the release of the Yoruba agitator.

“We are excited and pleased with the release of Sunday Ig­boho from the detention of the Benin Republic. We want to commend all the Yoruba elders and leaders who stood from the beginning till now to ensure that he regained his freedom.

“We also want to com­mend Igboho’s legal team for thoroughly executing the as­signment given to them and for their professionalism, we appreciate them,” Akindutire said in a telephone conversa­tion with Daily Independent.

He, however, reiterated the earlier call of the group that no harm must happen to the freedom fighter now that he has been released.

“We believe in justice and fairness for every citizen of Nigeria and for any incident whatsoever. We have always advocated peace, unity, and representing the diverse bridge of opinion towards mutual dia­logue for peaceful resolution of any conflict within the Yoruba community and Nigeria in par­ticular.”