South East breaking News
The legal team and supporters of Yoruba nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo a.k.a. Igboho, will prefer that he dies in Benin Republic than allow him to be handed over to the Nigerian government, his lawyer, Ibrahim David Salami, declared on Saturday.
Salami vowed that everything would be done to ensure that Igboho is not extradited to Nigeria.
Salami, a Beninese Yoruba and law lecturer, told BBC Yoruba in an interview monitored by The Nation that “it is important that Igboho is not extradited to Nigeria under any circumstances.”
“It is better for him to die here in Benin than extradited to Nigeria,” he said.
“With all that happened in his house and how the army is threatening him, allowing for his extradition will amount to sending him home to death.
“Rather than do that, it would be better to keep him in Benin and kill him than to let him go to Nigeria to be slaughtered like an animal.
“That has been our struggle and agitation here in Benin.”
He said the activist would know his fate tomorrow when the court is expected to rule on whether he, indeed, committed an offence in Nigeria warranting his extradition.
The federal government, he said, has written a letter to the Beninese government listing three offences against Adeyemo, namely illegal arms trafficking/stockpiling, public incitement and secession.
Salami denied that a Beninese passport was found in Igboho’s possession. But he confirmed that Igboho had a Nigerian passport bearing his name and a German residence permit which makes obtaining that country’s visa unnecessary.
Asked how Adeyemo was arrested, he said: “He was arrested at the point of documentation at the airport after his (Igboho’s) luggage had been checked in.
“The Nigerian government had notified Benin to help them arrest him in the event that they found him.
“The security people found that the name in his passport tallied with the name in their black book, and they asked him to step aside.”
Salami said the legal team of five in Benin has been receiving immense moral support from the Yoruba across the world since the case commenced but pleaded that those thronging the court at each hearing should keep off and allow the lawyers do their job.
He said unruly behavior on their part would not be in the best interest of Igboho as it will lend credence to the allegation of incitement leveled against him.
He said although Igboho remains handcuffed in detention, reports that he was beaten or tortured are false.
Credit to the Nation.
50% of Nigerians are willing to move abroad – World Bank
About 50% of Nigerians are willing to leave Nigeria for a better economic future abroad, an increase of nearly 20% since 2014.
The World Bank disclosed this in its report titled, ‘Of Roads Less Travelled: Assessing the Potential for Migration to Provide Overseas Jobs for Nigeria’s Youth,’ published on its website this week and obtained by the Observers Times News
The report suggests Nigeria ranked 3rd highest in West Africa behind Liberia (70%) and Sierra Leone (60%) of responders who would move permanently to another country. The least ranked country in the report was Niger Republic at 10%.
The World Bank stated that young Nigerians were increasingly opting for irregular migration routes to realize their hopes for a better life. “With rising migratory pressures created by poor employment conditions, Nigerians are increasingly choosing to migrate through irregular means,” the Bank stated.
It added that Nigerians represented the largest group of migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa arriving in Europe in 2016 and 2017 as nearly 40,000 Nigerians arrived in Italy in 2016 with over 90% of those arriving via sea routes.
“A larger share of Nigerian migrants arriving in Italy were women (32 percent) compared to migrants from the rest of SSA (24 percent),” the Washington-based bank stated.
It also revealed that while the number of asylum seekers from Nigeria has declined in recent years, this does not translate as decreased demand for migration from Nigeria. The drop in migration levels from Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries to Europe is a result of tighter border control policies supported by the EU in transit countries such as Libya and Niger.
“However, the underlying economic and demographic factors that create migratory pressures are unlikely to subside in the near future, with other potential irregular routes being reported through Sudan and Chad to Libya,” the Bretton Woods institution added.
recall that the World Bank stated that Nigeria is facing an acute jobless crisis that puts pressure on irregular migration for Nigerians who are seeking to leave the country. The report revealed that between 2014 and 2020, Nigeria’s working-age population increased from 102 million to 122 million, growing at an average rate of approximately 3% per year.