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Don’t hand over Ighoho to Nigeria, Yoruba group urges Benin Republic

Benin court files fresh charges against Igboho

Sunday Adeyemo

A United Kingdom-based Yoruba Self-Determination Group, Yoruba Voice of Liberation, has called on the Government of Republic of Benin to respect its internal law and obligations to the international law by rejecting the request of the Nigerian Government to extradite detained Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, fondly called Sunday Igboho, to Nigeria.

The group, in a statement signed by its President and Secretary, Mr. Ayo Faleti and Dr. Ademola Adekunle, respectively, alleged that  Igboho would be killed by the Nigerian government if extradited.
 
Part of the statement read, “On escaping the attempt on his life, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, fleeing from persecution made it to Republic of Benin. Article 14 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted in 1948, established that everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

“The Right to Asylum defines that no state party shall expel, return (“refouler”), surrender or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he or she would be in danger of being subjected to enforced disappearance.

“For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations, including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights or of serious violations of international humanitarian law.
 
“The constitutions of Benin directly cite the Declaration reaffirm our attachment to the principles of democracy and human rights as they have been defined by the Charter of the United Nations of 1945 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, by the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted in 1981 by the Organization of African Unity and ratified by Bénin on January 20, 1986 and whose provisions make up an integral part of this present Constitution and of Béninese law and have a value superior to the internal law”

“We continue to call on the Republic of Benin to stand up to its international obligation and responsibilities by refusing to hand over to the Nigerian government Chief Sunday Adeyemo.”

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