Human rights lawyer , Femi Falana , has warned the Nigeria Police Force not to arrest popular Yoruba rights activist , Sunday Adeyemo, well known as Sunday Igboho.
“ I urge the police not to venture to arrest Mr Sunday Igboho because in this same country , when others issued quit notices to other nationalities in the past, they were not arrested,” Falana said Friday on a PUNCH Online interview programme, The Roundtable.
The Presidency had said the Inspector-General of Police , Mohammed Adamu, ordered the arrest of Igboho for giving Fulani herdsmen accused of perpetrating sundry crimes in Oyo State an ultimatum to exit the state .
At the expiration of the seven -day ultimatum , Igangan residents in the Ibarapa area of the state , emboldened by Igboho ’s presence , had ejected the Seriki Fulani, Abdulkadri Saliu , and his herders out of the rustic town .
But Falana said “ there is no way the police can choose who to arrest in this nature .”
According to him, “ Almajiris have been deported , beggars have been deported , the poor and destitute have been deported and the government never raised any issue . ”
Falana, who had earlier said Igboho had no right to issue the vacation order to the herdsmen , said his position on such matter has been consistent , adding that he had spoken against persons who issued quit notices to non – indigenes in the past.
The rights lawyer said he does not support jungle justice but the citizens must not take laws into their hands.
“The government has failed the people but the people can mobilised to make the government alive to its responsibility of protecting lives and properties,” he said, adding, “It has got to that stage when every community has to organised its security because we can no longer depend on the government.”
“Sunday Igboho cannot be arrested because others who gave quit notices in the past were not arrested. In fact, when somebody gave a quit notice to the Igbo people in the north, a governor ordered the arrest of the person but the police never arrested him,” Falana maintained.
