Following the arrest of chief Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, facts have emerged on how the Yoruba nation activist initially escaped arrest at the Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou, Benin Republic before his eventual arrest around 8pm on Monday.
Igboho and wife, Ropo, were arrested 20 days after the DSS invasion on his Ibadan residence.
According to a report by the Punch, a top security source revealed that Igboho and Ropo, at first, escaped arrest but a travel agent was used to lure them back to the airport.
The source said, “He (Igboho) was arrested in Cotonou on Monday night while he tried to travel. He was already at the airport with a passport. The immigration officers suspected the passport and so they stopped him. In the process, they discovered he was the one. He was able to escape in the course of discussion and we were grateful to God for that.
“But the travel agent called back saying the matter had been resolved. But on going back, he was arrested. He was trying to travel to Germany when he was apprehended.”
Also, another security source present in Cotonou told the Punch that Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Benin Republic, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (retd.), was instrumental in the arrest of Igboho and his wife.
Buratai, Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff between July 2015 and January 2021, was deployed as Nigeria’s envoy in the Benin Republic in June 2021.
The source confided in newsmen that the former Chief of Army Staff wrote the government of the small West African country and insisted on the arrest and extradition of Igboho.
