Yoruba Nation activist Sunday ‘Igboho’ Adeyemo has accused Ibrahim Salami, one of his lawyers, of disrespecting him amid his legal struggle to wriggle out of the Benin Republic detention and avoid extradition to Nigeria.
He said the lawyer kept him waiting for 15 minutes to attend to someone else.
“He didn’t give me respect at all.,” said Igboho.
In a 15-minute audio recording published by Sahara Reporters, Mr Adeyemo said that he left angrily to eat when his lawyer was attending to some people rather than him.
“I told him (lawyer) I was hungry and had to eat, and he told me to go. I told him to see me. It wasn’t because of those people that he came here now,” the activist complained. “I was waiting for him for 15 minutes. If he had told those people to give him time to attend to his client, that one would not have said anything because he knew you came there because of me.”
In the leaked audio, Igboho said he felt abandoned and disappointed.
“But he abandoned me where I was. I didn’t know him before now; I wasn’t expecting him at all. I didn’t know it was Salami that lawyer Falola would be sending,” the Yoruba Nation activist fleeing from President Muhammadu Buhari regime’s secret police added. “I’m not a young boy now; I’ll be 50 years (old) by October this year. I might have a small body, but God answered my prayers. I’m a man, and I know my worth.”
Referring to Nnamdi Kanu’s extraction to Nigeria, Mr Adeyemo pointed out that he was under similar conditions. He added, “I have accepted my fate. I do not fear anything except God. I will ask the judge if he is God. If they decide to take me back to Nigeria, let them take me there. Kanu is in Nigeria, and we are fighting under the same circumstances. It is only fear, but if there is God there, let them bring me to Nigeria.”
An upset Igboho said the Beninois lawyers representing him were incompetent despite collecting millions of naira to defend him.
“The lawyers that can’t convince a judge to release me. See how many they are: about 10 of them. Are those ones lawyers?” lamented Igboho. “The lawyers that can’t let them remove handcuffs from my hands for seven days until Falola came. It wasn’t small money that they collected. Some collected N5 million, some N4 million.”
In a frustrated tone, he further disclosed, “I don’t need any information from them. I told my wife when she visited me recently: any information that can’t take me out of here is useless.”
In the leaked audio recording, Igboho also revealed how he confronted Beninois prison officers.
“If I get angry with anyone, the person won’t be able to hold me. The day I confronted them here in prison, they were shocked,” said Igboho, “I told them to either kill me or change my cell and that I didn’t care if they would open fire on me. They had no option than to change my cell.”
The Interpol arrested Igboho and his Germany-based wife at Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou on July 20, trying to board a flight to Germany.
Mr Igboho was declared wanted by the State Security Service after the operatives violently raided his Ibadan home killing at least two of his associates.
