A socio-political group, the Yoruba Self-Determination Coalition (YSDC), has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to grant amnesty to a Yoruba agitator, Sunday Adeyemo (a k.a Sunday Igboho), who is on self-exile, to return to Nigeria.
The group pleaded with Tinubu to grant the leader of the group a presidential pardon so that he could return from the Benin Republic, where he is taking refuge.
Adeyemo escaped from 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 the statement jointly signed by the National Leader and Secretary of the group, Otunba Demola Edward and Mr. Tunji Omolewu, respectively, 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: “As hinted by the name of the organization we are here representing today, the progress and development of the southwest region of Yoruba is our paramount interest.
“We 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 its support for President Tinubu in his bold quest to move the country forward through developing a democratic system and institutions, the group said: “Perhaps you would all agree with us 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.
“We 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.”
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