Says 'Igboho is the living manifestation of the spirit of Oduduwa'
The Founder of One Love Family and Living Perfect Master, Satguru Maharaj Ji, has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to grant amnesty to Yoruba agitator, Sunday Adeyemo popularly known as Sunday Igboho who is on self-exile, to return to Nigeria.
Maharaj Ji pleaded with Tinubu to grant the leader of the group a presidential pardon so that he could return from where he is taking refuge.
Adeyemo left the country after security operatives invaded his residence in Ibadan, Oyo state, during the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government on suspicion that he was allegedly engaging in gunrunning.
He was subsequently arrested and detained in the Benin Republic but was thereafter released in March 2022 to have access to medical services on the condition that he would not move out of the country.
In a statement signed by Maharaj Ji pleaded that Sunday Igboho should be allowed to return to Nigeria in the interest of national unity and to move the nation forward.
It stated that the right time is now for President Tinubu to use his presidential prerogative to effect the release of Igboho.
The statement reads in parts: “I urge President Tinubu, who was himself an agitator for democracy during the June 12, 1993 saga, to pardon Chief Adeyemo because his agitation was solely for the security and development of the Yoruba South West region.”
Pledging His support for President Tinubu in his bold quest to move the country forward through developing a democratic system and institutions, Maharaj Ji said: “Perhaps you would all agree with me that the dwindling fortunes of this country have been deeply aggravated by the 1999 constitution which was handed to us by the military, without the input of democratic representations.
“There is no gain in saying that this country needs an urgent rescue from the worsening socio-economic and security ailment of all time, and the first dose of the panacea to cure such crises must and should be the amendment of the so-called 1999 constitution, which successive administrations lack the political will to implement.
“I believe that President Tinubu is a brave leader who has all it takes to engage cerebral socio-political approaches to see to the amendment of the anti-progressive constitution.”
According to Him, Igboho is one of the living spirit of Oduduwa himself and that he speaks the mind of over 70 million Yoruba people throughout the world.
"Sunday Igboho remains an undisputed hero of the Yoruba people today, and that his actions are in accordance with the self-determination clause in the United Nations Charter.
He said Igboho has come to fill a void created by those charged with the responsibility of defending their people in the face of both internal and external aggression.
"Adeyemo did not exceed the frontiers of the ancestral land of his forefathers. What he was determined to do was to guard his people, men, women and children against unprovoked attacks ruthlessly and brutishly unleashed on them and to ensure that conducive atmosphere existed for his people to carry out their legitimate businesses without series of indignities they were notoriously subjected to.”
Maharaj Ji said Igboho never went out of his way to attack anybody outside of the Yoruba nation, nor does he issue terrorist threats to fellow Nigerians on regular basis, like the pampered “angels of Officialdom.”
The statement added: “Chief Adeyemo is not a threat to any government or any institutions in Nigeria. All his actions are in the self-defense of his people. He should therefore not be demonized.
"Igboho is defender of the defenceless and he is a metaphor for Nigeria. When we have agencies who appear nonchalant, what will come next is for non state actors to take charge. It was because of this same crisis that led to the establishment of Amotekun but nothing seems to have been done and that's why Igboho is having heroic acceptance", He said.
He belongs to many cultural groups for the upliftment of the people towards positive growth and understanding of the polarized world of secular society.
"Adeyemo's mission was meant to put a stop to the iniquities being meted out to Yoruba people, of which he is a proud son. His concern was the security of lives and properties of the people in the entire South-West geopolitical zone and not Boko Haram.
"Even after the security apparatus were mistakenly informed about him and got attacked and his house destroyed, he was still adamant that the truth shall come out to prove all allegations against him was false. He is a true Nigerian loved by all sectors of the people.
"There is no where in the southern part of the country you will hear of him in bad taste because his belief in ONE NIGERIA is for equal rights, rule of law, the dignity of all Nigerians and Africans alike.
"Igboho's mission was meant to put a stop to the iniquities being meted out to Yoruba people, of which he is a proud son.
"He is crusading for the Yoruba nation and he has not committed any offence at all. So any Yoruba man who has not committed any offence and he is being victimised, people will rise up for such a person. Nothing will happen to Sunday Igboho.
"Here is a man whose penchant love for all goes beyond tribal and religious barriers judging by his ever readiness to assist people of both religions to fulfil their obligations before God.
Maharaj Ji urged the Federal Government to allow Sunday Adeyemo to live a free life in the interest of the country's unity; He said the Federal Government has no reasonable ground to persecute the Yoruba freedom fighter for merely participating in, or organising non-violent free protests demanding independence for his people, in the face of deep rooted acts of racism, tribalism, ethnic and integrity crisis in the nation which the present democratic government of President Tinubu is rectifying through his Renew Hope Agenda.
According to Him, agitation for secession is as a result of past Federal Government Leaders failure to adequately address issues of policing, justice and fundamental rights among the different ethnic groups across the country.
He said: "The present treatment the Federal Government is meting out to Sunday Igboho and Nnamdi Kanu showed bias, particularly compared with the way bandits are treated in the northern parts and killer herdsmen across the country." My strong view is that the action of the Federal Government through its security agencies against Igboho would end up creating more freedom fighters in the country, more dangerous persons would follow the path with a view to becoming a hero for his people.
"Sunday Igboho did not install radio to attack the government nor did he use any newspapers to fan the ember of hatred, disunity nor did he create a cult or use group of Nigerians to spread terror and terrorism.
He is a fine patriot of the Yoruba Nation who came up to wake the Governments to please ensure safety of life, security of properties of all, provision of employment and security of Yorubas in all parts of the country.
"Whenever land grabbers hear of him, they tremble because he is ready to assist recovery of people’s lands within the law whether with the proper traditional history or legal means.
"He is well known as a patriot who has the love of all Nigerian at heart.
"Unfortunately, Federal Government is not learning from history, Ken Saro Wiwa advocated for Niger-Delta right peacefully but was silenced by the then Military Junta, afterwards, brutal young men inherited the struggle and almost ruined the economy of the country down, the government was forced to sit down with them.
"A recent survey carried out in Yoruba land, precisely the Southern States, every person you talk to about Sunday Igboho sympathizes greatly for the losses he sustained during the attack on him and some people are of the opinion that it was the Boko Haram faction that use the DSS apparatus to visit such destruction on him.
"So, if the government is not very careful with the manner it is handling the Igboho issue, it could be counter-productive. He has only led peaceful protests across the southwest states, no one was killed nor property destroyed, only for the government's security operatives, particularly the DSS to invade his house, killed two persons, injured many and even destroyed his personal property without valid ground.
"Rather than condemn Sunday Igboho, he needs to be commended for his couragement and boldness in challenging the criminal activities of these El-Rufai boys who are armed to the teeth, within the ambit of the law of the land.
"Igboho has every right under the Constitution to express his sincere concern over the security of lives and properties of the people and should therefore not be held liable or called derogatory names for the people's spontaneous reaction after barring his mind on the heinous crimes associated to the herders, because naturally human lives matter more than any other thing created, in the black world.
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