Sunday Igboho: Yoruba Nationals petition UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson over Nigerian Government’s Human Rights Abuses

The Yoruba Nationals in the United Kingdom (UK) on 13th July 2021 petitioned the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, MP alleging the Nigerian Government of various human rights abuses.

The concerned citizens raised their grave concerns about the lives and security of the indigenous people of the Yoruba Nation based in Nigeria, specifically South-West region of the country.

They plead with the UK Prime Minister for the UK government support on the plight and serious security threats to the lives of the Yoruba Indigenous people and the potential war that may be waged against them by the current government of Nigeria under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The contents of the petition were shared with InfoStride News and are reproduced below. A similar petition was written by an alliance of Yoruba social-cultural and interest groups to the United Nations alleging the current Nigerian government of perpetrating genocide and crimes against humanity on the Yoruba Indigenous people in the South-Western region of Nigeria (the petition is available here).

PETITION TO PM BORIS JOHNSON MP

The Prime Minister
Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson MP
House of Commons
Westminster
London SW1A OAA

By email: boris.johnson.mp[at]parliament.uk

13 July 2021

Dear Prime Minister Boris Johnson MP

Grave concerns about the lives and security of the indigenous people of Yoruba Nation based in Nigeria

I am contacting you as a Yoruba indigene [an individual of Yoruba origin] to plead for your support regarding the plight and serious security threats to the lives of the Yoruba Indigenous people and the potential war that may be waged against them by the current Nigerian government.

We understand that several delegates on Friday 2 July, met with Members of the House of Lords, including Baroness Caroline Cox and Lord David Alton, to raise these issues.

On Thursday 13 September 2007, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the General Assembly. This Declaration is regarded as the most comprehensive international instrument on the rights of indigenous peoples. According to Article 43, this Declaration enshrines the rights that constitute the minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world. Self-determination is a cardinal principle of the United Nations for all indigenous peoples in their ancestral lands and is a human right in international law.

The Yoruba Nation through the collaborative efforts of the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) has been engaging with the United Nations to facilitate the legal and peaceful exit of Yoruba Nation and other indigenous peoples from Nigeria. Please click on this ttps://freedomfromnigeria.com/ for comprehensive details of the work of NINAS.

The Nigerian Government, however, is criminalising the Yoruba Nation agitators who are asking for self-determination and seeking to exercise their rights by terrorising, using the might of security agencies to go after them. Notably, on Thursday 1 July, the Nigerian Department of State Security invaded the home of one of the leaders – Mr Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho – at around 1 am in the morning, shot indiscriminately for over an hour, killed two people, dragged their bodies away and took several people in the residence away to Abuja – the capital of Nigeria. We understand that there are arrangements currently going on in Nigeria to secure their release.

You may find these interviews 1) with one of Nigeria’s civil rights lawyers and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria Mr Femi Falana https://youtu.be/IEVEgcfFI10; and 2) a Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka http://fb.watch/v/4qWqcvyof/, about the grave situation the indigenous peoples in Nigeria are currently facing of interest.

Thank you for your help with this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Yoruba Nationals, UK