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Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, one of the umbrella bodies of herdsmen in Nigeria, has alleged that South West governors are hiding wanted Yoruba nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho.
Spokesman for the group, Saleh Alhassan, stated this in an interview with The Punch, on Monday.
Recall that opertives of the Department of State Services (DSS) had on July 1, raided Igboho’s Iresidence in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. After the raid, 13 of his aides and associates were arrested while two other persons were killed in a “gun duel” with the secret police.
Igboho, the arrowhead of the separatist agitation for Yoruba nation, escaped the bloody raid and was subsequently declared wanted by DSS on allegations of stockpiling arms to destabilise the country, which he has since denied.
The whereabouts of the Yoruba nation agitator, who gained popularity in January, following his eviction notice to suspected killer herders in Ibarapa area of Oyo State, had been unknown since then.
But the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore spokesman said the DSS should have raided Igboho’s house earlier than it did.
Alhassan, however, advised the activist to turn himself in to security operatives because he would be forcefully apprehended.
He said: “It is in his (Igboho) own best interest if he submits himself peacefully so that he can face justice. Why is he running? Is he not a revolutionary? He should submit himself before they get him because as it is now, he has been declared wanted, he should present himself to the nearest police station.”
Alhassan also alleged that the six governors in the South West region are hiding Igboho.
“All his (Igboho’s) actions are political; he is being used. His godfathers in the South West should bring him out.
“The security agencies are speaking the language he understands, they will get him. I know the governors are hiding him but they (security agents) will get him.
“The (Nigerian) state has declared him wanted. He is not more than the state. The governors keeping him should produce him,” he said.
“He declared a Republic; that was a rebellion. How can you be threatening the sovereignty of the (Nigerian) state and you still have the guts to be walking around and be organising rallies?” Alhassan queried.
It is belittling for South West governors to respond to Miyetti Allah- Ondo Commissioner
Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, said it is belittling for the South West governors to respond to the allegation of Miyetti Allah.
Reacting to the allegation of the herders’ group, Ojogo told The Punch that: “It is not necessary, absolutely demeaning for elected governors to engage an association in a media banter.”