Known for an ideologue and a Yoruba separatist, the arrest of Mr. Sunday IGBOHO is already provoking reactions within the international scientific community. The first to date is that of the lawyer Malick O. FALOLA. Professor of law at the University of Abomey Calavi and lawyer at the Court of Appeal of Paris, he expresses reservations on this supposed extradition from Nigeria and invites the government to be careful with regard to the international and regional Conventions which frame the extradition and of which Benin is a party.
Real name Sunday Adéyémo, Igboho is a popular Nigerian entrepreneur, politician and human rights activist. He was born in OKE Ogoun, in the State of Oyo in Nigeria on October 10, 1972. Separatist for some, terrorist for others - especially those close to power - he is a hero of the safeguard of democratic gains, of respect fundamental freedoms, and it usually struggles against regionalism and ethnocentrism within the Nigerian nation.
Considered an ideologue and the champion of the creation of a Yoruba republic in Nigeria, Igboho had escaped a raid by the Nigerian police at his home in Soka (Ibadan) on July 1. Two of his men were reportedly killed and 13 others arrested. Since then he has gone into hiding.
The Beninese republican police put an end to his run on Monday July 19, 2021 by arresting him at Cardinal Bernadin Gantin International Airport while he was traveling to Germany in possession of a Benin passport. The man who has taken the bush since the beginning of July is preparing to fly to Germany, the country in which his family is located.
It appears that he is accused in the exercise of his civil and political rights of having organized several ideological movements to destabilize the country. Note that the activist is the spearhead of the separatist agitation for the advent of the Yoruba state.
In this circumstance would Mr. Sunday IGBOHO be extradited from Cotonou to the city of Abuja to be tried by the Nigerian State which cannot seriously guarantee him human rights guarantees because of his opposition to this regime?
The answer to this question remains to be assessed in the light of international, regional and even bilateral agreements signed between the Republic of Benin and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The ECOWAS extradition convention should apply as a priority, but the possibility of subjecting him to degrading and inhuman treatment because of his ethnicity, his tribe etc ..., by the political authorities in his country of origin becomes an obstacle to his extradition to Nigeria under Article 3 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.
The ECOWAS Extradition Convention states that “Certain offenses cannot give rise to extradition. This is the case for political offenses and military offenses. The requested State is not obliged to extradite if the offense for which extradition is requested is considered to be a political offense or as a related offense ”.
The ECOWAS Extradition Convention places on the requested State the obligation not to extradite when the individual whose extradition is requested has not benefited or is likely not to benefit during the proceedings. minimum guarantees provided for in Article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.
The right to bring before the competent national courts any act violating the fundamental rights which are recognized and guaranteed by the conventions, laws, regulations and customs in force; the right to the presumption of innocence, until his guilt is established by a competent court; the right to defense, including the right to be assisted by a lawyer of one's choice; the right to be tried within a reasonable time by an impartial court.
The right of the individual whose extradition is requested to have his case heard has been taken into account in the ECOWAS extradition convention, in particular in its articles 8 and 14. It is left to article 8 of the convention the possibility for the requested State to refuse to extradite if the individual whose extradition is requested has been tried or runs the risk of being tried or convicted in the requesting State by an exceptional court.
The State of Benin cannot ignore the indisputable role that the respondent played in favor of the disadvantaged Yoruba populations by a government policy advocating ethnocentrism within the Nigerian nation. Mr. Sunday IGBOHO recently criticized the closure of the borders of southwestern Nigeria connecting his country and Benin. Our country cannot seriously discuss the refusal to extradite the victim to Nigeria without having investigated and gathered evidence justifying the benefit of international protection as a political refugee. Benin is not obliged to respect the will of its country of origin because it is accused of a political offense.
From all of the above, the Beninese State is called upon to ensure, by virtue of the principle of respect for a sovereign State, the effectiveness of the primacy of respect for human rights on its territory arising from international and regional conventions to oppose at the request for the extradition of Mr. Sunday IGBOHO to the Nigerian authorities.
By Dr. Malick Oluchegoun FALOLA
Lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the University of Abomey-Calavi
Lawyer at the Paris Court of Appeal
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