Tobias Sylvester
Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, has dragged the Nigerian Government to court over the invasion of his house in Ibadan by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
Igboho, who is currently detained in Benin Republic, asked the Federal High Court in Ibadan to compel the DSS and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) to pay him N5.5 billion in damages over the invasion of his house in the wee hours of July 1 by DSS operatives.
In the suit filed by his counsel, Chief Yomi Alliyu (SAN) on Friday, the activist is seeking the enforcement of his fundamental rights which was expedient in the view of the invasion of his house, leading to the killing of two of his supporters and arrest of 12 aides.
Sunday Igboho told the court that the DSS operatives stormed his residence at about 1am on July 1 and “without announcing who they were or asking the applicant (Igboho) to open his gate, shot their way through, killing two people, including an elderly Imam doing Tahjud (vigil), shooting at cars, thereby destroying them and not sparing animals, like cats and dogs in total violation of the intendments of the fundamental human rights provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights Act.”
He said for two hours, the DSS operatives shot through the ceiling and roof of his house, thereby depriving him “the quiet enjoyment of his house for the period of the armed invasion of the said property.”
The activist is urging the court to declare that the AGF and the DSS, through the midnight operation, violated his right and trampled on the nation’s constitution.
Igboho wants the court to order the defendants to return his personal belongings, which they allegedly carted away during the operations. He listed the items to include N2m cash, €1,000, travel documents belonging to him and his family members, gold jewellery and wristwatches, a I-Phone 12 mobile phone, Samsung mobile phone, and other items yet to be ascertained.
He also wants the court to compel the AGF, the DSS and the DSS DG to also pay him N500m to cover for the damage done to his cars and house and another N5bn as “exemplary and/or aggravated damages for breaching the applicant’s fundamental rights in the course of the illegal and malicious invasion of his residence.”
He also wants the court to compel the defendants to tender a public apology to him, to be published in two national dailies – The Punch and The Nation newspapers – for breaching his fundamental rights.
In addition, the embattled Yoruba Nation agitator wants the court to declare that he has “unquestionable and inalienable fundamental right to peacefully campaign and seek for self-determination of Yoruba tribe in Nigeria and lobby the legislature to amend the 1999 Constitution.”
He wants the court to declare that it is illegal for the DSS and the AGF to be hunting him with gun, with a view to arresting him because he is “propagating his belief in association with other like minds to create a Yoruba Nation/Oduduwa Republic for his indigenous Yoruba people.”
He also wants the court to restrain the defendants and their agents from further harassing him or causing his bank accounts to be frozen. The court has yet to fix a date for the hearing of the suit.
KanyiDaily reports that Sunday Igboho is currently detained in Benin Republic after he was arrested with his wife at the Cardinal Bernardin International Airport in Cotonou on Monday.
