How I remained indoors without being seen during DSS invasion – Sunday Igboho

Yoruba Nation campaigner, Sunday Adeyemo, widely known as Sunday Igboho, has narrated how he avoided arrest during the Department of State Services (DSS) operation on his Ibadan residence in July 2021, insisting that he remained inside the house throughout the raid.

Speaking on Monday while hosting a group of Muslim clerics at his residence in Ibadan, Igboho said the security operatives combed the house in search of him but were unable to locate him.

He further alleged that the operatives mistook a cat for him and later brought in what he described as a “fake herbalist” to perform rituals in an attempt to discover his whereabouts.

According to him, he stayed inside the residence from the moment the operation began until the DSS team departed.

“When they came around 1:30 am. I heard a sound and was inquiring who it was; they started shooting at the room. They heard my voice. When they finally scaled the fence in, they planted a dynamite on the burglary, and everything completely fell apart. That was where they entered. I was naked, but upon hearing their voice, I wore a jean and shirt. One mind was telling me to surrender to them; the other was telling me not to surrender, else I would be killed.

“So at a point, it was looking like I was scared of them; then I immediately yelled, inquiring what had happened and why they had come to pick me up. So they started shooting at close range without even seeing me.

“When they entered and were screaming that I opened the door, they pointed a gun at Dudu (my personal assistant)’s head. And he kept begging me not to shoot while knocking on the door. There, I suspected. They forced the door open. People were even lying that they shot me and I ran away with my intestines out.”

Igboho also dismissed long-standing rumours that he transformed into a cat to evade arrest.

“I didn’t turn into a cat. They even killed it, thinking it was me. They even brought a fake herbalist who was just making an incantation and performing a ritual. I was in the house watching them, but they didn’t see me.

“There was this my brother who was partially blind and came out; upon sighting him, they shot him, thinking that he wanted to attack them. They took the corpses away as evidence that they truly invaded my home. So it was God that saved me after a prayer that some Muslim clerics did in my house, forestalling a bad vision they claimed to have seen on me.”

The DSS carried out the raid on Igboho’s Soka residence in Ibadan in the early hours of July 1, 2021, following months of friction between the activist and the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Prior to the operation, Igboho had drawn nationwide attention after issuing an ultimatum to some Fulani residents in parts of Oyo State, accusing them of involvement in kidnapping and other criminal activities.

He later declared that criminal elements among the Fulani would be expelled from Yorubaland and intensified his agitation for an independent Yoruba Nation.

The Federal Government maintained that some of his activities constituted a threat to national security and subsequently moved to arrest him.

After the raid, the DSS announced that it recovered firearms and ammunition from the residence and arrested 13 of Igboho’s associates. The agency also stated that two of his aides were killed during what it described as an exchange of gunfire.

Igboho later left Nigeria and was arrested in Cotonou, Benin Republic, while attempting to travel to Germany.

Following months of legal proceedings, he was released by the Beninese authorities and has since remained in self-imposed exile in Benin Republic, where he continues to campaign for the Yoruba Nation.