Sunday Igboho demands N5.5bn damages from Nigerian govt

Yoruba Nation agitator, Chief Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho, is demanding N5bn in damages from the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the Department of State Services (DSS), over the invasion of his house in the early hours of July 1 by DSS operatives which saw the murder of two of his associates and arrest of 12 others.

Igboho, who is currently in detention in Benin Republic, filed the suit at the Federal High Court in Ibadan on Friday through his counsel, Chief Yomi Alliyu (SAN).

In the suit he filed, he contended that the invasion of his house in the Soka area of Ibadan, was malicious and also amounted to a violation of his fundamental human rights.

The agitator told the court that the DSS operatives stormed his residence at about 1 am on July 1 and “without announcing who they were or asking the applicant (Igboho) to open his gate, shot their way through, killing two people, including an elderly Imam doing Tahjud (vigil), shooting at cars, thereby destroying them and not sparing animals, like cats and dogs in total violation of the intendments of the fundamental human rights provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights Act.”

He said for two hours, they shot through the ceiling and roof of his house, depriving him of “the quiet enjoyment of his house for the period of the armed invasion of the said property.”

Igboho wants the court to order the defendants to return his personal belongings, which they allegedly carted away during the operations.

He listed the items as N2m cash, €1,000, travel documents, gold jewelry and wristwatches, an iPhone 12 mobile phone, Samsung mobile phone, and other items yet to be ascertained.

Igboho is also demanding that the AGF, the DSS and the DSS DG pay him N500m as cover for the damage done to his cars and house and another N5bn as “exemplary and/or aggravated damages for breaching the applicant’s fundamental rights in the course of the illegal and malicious invasion of his residence.”

In addition, the embattled Yoruba Nation agitator wants the court to declare that he has “unquestionable and inalienable fundamental right to peacefully campaign and seek for self-determination of Yoruba tribe in Nigeria and lobby the legislature to amend the 1999 Constitution.”

The court is yet to fix a date for the hearing of the suit.