SUNDAY IGBOHO: A pyrrhic victory is still a victory

 SUNDAY IGBOHO: A pyrrhic victory is  still a victory

    The internet space was awash with joy when the news of the release of Chief Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, was announced. It was absolutely unprecedented. Nobody envisaged not in their wildest dreams that his freedom would come sooner.

         1st July it was when the media was thrown into frenzy about the midnight raid of Sunday Igboho's Soka residence in Ibadan and his workers taken away by the Secret Police of the government DSS. Sunday Igboho escaped and went off the grid until 19th July when he and his wife, Ropo, were arrested by the International criminal police organisation at the Cadjèhoun Airport in Conotou as they headed to Germany. They are put behind bars. Few weeks after, Ropo was released but Sunday Igboho was remanded. 

          Ilana Omo Oodua(a Yoruba socio_cultural group) that drums support for the self_determination of the South-West under the aegis of Professor Banji Akintoye waded into the situation. The services of the best lawyers were solicited and the battle for his release began. But all efforts to secure his release proved abortive making everyone believe his continued detention at Benin Republic's prison has a political undertone but his lawyers refused to deter in efforts.

        Days rolled into weeks and weeks rolled into months and there seemed to be no hope of the self determination agitator's release. Prof.Akintoye who was saddened by this unwholesome development always voiced his dissatisfaction on the media and to portray his sadness, he halted any celebration for his 85th birthday. He said there was nothing joyful about his birthday if Igboho still remained in detention. Unknown to us,  Prof was pulling wires in the back stage.

       Few days before 7th March,  Maxwell Adeleye, the spokesperson for Prof. Akintoye, hinted at a likely release of Igboho, soon but nobody took this seriously until the blink of 7th March and the news of the embattled agitator was all over the place. It was the best news in months and many applauded the Beninoise government for this magnanimity. Prof. Akintoye refused to take the credit for Igboho's release, alone as he attributed it to the help of Prof.Wale Adeniran, a French language expert and a chief member of the Ilana Omo Oodua group. 

      Although, one of the legal representatives of Sunday Igboho corrected the fact that it was only a conditional release, it is celebratory enough. Nobody saw this coming, it still feels incomprehensible but all that matters is that it happened. Regardless of the clause attached to the release, a release remains a release.