A coalition of Yoruba groups, Igbimo Apapo Yoruba Lagbaye, says 100 senior advocates of Nigeria and other prominent lawyers would be raised if Yoruba rights activists, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, is taken to court over his action.
The group said this in a statement on Friday reacting to the position of the opposition of a human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, to the eviction notice issued by Sunday Igboho.
AMILOADED reports that Igboho had issued a seven-day quit notice to Fulani in Igangan, Ibarapa area of Oyo State over their alleged involvement in kidnappings and killings.
Subsequently, Igboho and his supporters stormed Igangan after the expiration of the quit notice to chase away the Fulani.
In an interview on a BBC programme on Wednesday, Falana asked the affected Fulani herders to sue Igboho and defend their constitutional rights.
But the Yoruba group in a statement by its President, Aare Oladotun Hassan, and secretary-general, Siyanbade Adekanbi, faulted Falana’s position, alleging that some herders had destroyed farmlands, killed farmers, and raped women in the country.
The statement read, “Today it is crystal clear to the blind on the current position we find ourselves in Nigeria, whereas the government has failed in its statutory duties to provide adequate security for her people, hence self-defence becomes an inevitable solution.
“We are disappointed to see Mr Falana’s clandestine call for fundamental rights legal attrition against Sunday Igboho as most unfortunate, demeaning and treacherous, for someone of the legal calibre of Falana to support the Fulani herdsmen bandits wreaking havoc ranging from kidnappings, rape, mass destructions, killings and invasions of farmlands and communities at will, at the detriment of the victim’s fundamental human rights.
“Indeed Falana failed to sue the killer herdsmen, mostly whose identity are deceitfully more visible as Fulanis rather than real Nigerians.
“While those that invade farmlands most times are Fulani foreign fighters from Mali, Sudan, Niger, Libya to mention a few, hence the Nigeria Immigration Service needs to wake up to her responsibility urgently.
“We are not surprised to see the crafty statements from some of the so-called enemies of the Yoruba people and Nigerians at large. We Yorubas are the most accommodating ethnic race in Nigeria, we love everyone including Hausas, Fulani, Igbos, Efiks, Ijaws to mention a few, and they all can attest to their peaceful habitation and successes.
“We reiterate our supports for Igboho and other like minds, that for any legal action against him or others, we are prepared to raise 100 SANs and senior lawyers of erudite qualities to defend the Yoruba interests at the court.”
(Punch)
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