Nigeria: disappearance of Yoruba activist after police operation
View of an artery in Abuja.
(Drawing).
Abuja Reuters
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In Nigeria, a demonstration in favor of the creation of a "Yoruba" nation was brutally dispersed in Lagos on Saturday July 3rd.
It was activist Sunday Igboho - known for his speeches inciting ethnic hatred against Fulani herders - who called on his supporters to meet in the Nigerian economic capital.
But the activist was the target of a raid two days ago by Nigerian security services on his home in Ibadan on Thursday and has since been reported missing.
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Only a handful of protesters found the courage to take to the streets to ask the authorities to "leave Sunday Igboho alone".
According to Nigerian media present on the spot, the police intervened with tear gas and even fired live ammunition in the district of Ojota where this peaceful gathering was taking place.
The Nigerian authorities want to be intractable, as calls for secession intensify in the south-east and in the south-west of Nigeria.
At dawn on Thursday, a team from the Nigerian State Security Department raided Sunday Igboho's residence in Ibadan.
After a heated exchange of fire with the guards present, Nigerian security forces arrested 13 people and seized an arsenal comprising several shotguns and Kalashnikovs.
As for Sunday Igboho, he was able to flee and he is now "wanted" by the Nigerian authorities.
It is impossible after this episode not to draw a parallel with the attack on the house of
pro-Biafra independence
leader
Nnamdi Kanu
in 2017. The latter then fled and left Nigeria, where he was forcibly brought back there. at one week, in still murky circumstances.
He will face charges of terrorism at the end of July in Abuja.
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