Cour D’Appel De Cotonou has ordered that Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Igboho, should be be transferred to another detention facility.
This is after the activist’s lawyers complained that his fundamental human rights were being abused.
The PUNCH had reported that Igboho had leg chain and hand-cuff on him.
But Ilana Omo Oodua in a statement in Monday morning said the leg chain and hand-cuff were later removed from him.
According to Ibrahim Salami, one of the Cotonou, Benin Republic-based lawyers of Sunday Igboho, the activist needed support to eat and use the toilet because of the hand-cuff.
Before the new order, Igboho was detained at Brigade Criminelle facility.
Though tbe new detention facility is yet to be disclosed, our correspondent gathered that the activist would possibly be moved to Cotonou Civil Prison.
Also, the Cour De’Appel De Cotonou returned Igboho to police custody pending further investigation.
The activist was returned to cell after a 13-hour hearing, which ended around 11:20 pm on Monday.
The case was heard behind closed doors as the court limited attendance to lawyers, Igboho’s wife, Ropo, and a few others.
Journalists and Igboho’s supporters who thronged the court in their large numbers were denied access.
Details of the judgment are sketchy as of the time of filing this report.
The PUNCH had reported that police dispersed the supporters and journalists from the premises of the Cour De’appel De Cotonou.
But some of the supporters reconverged at Marina Roundabout some minutes after, awaiting judgement.
Igboho and his wife were arrested on Monday, July 19, 2021, by the International Criminal Police Organisation at the Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou, Republic of Benin on their way to Germany
When they were arraigned last Thursday, the Beninese court adjourned the case till Monday (today) after Igboho’s five lawyers failed to convince the prosecutor that he had no case to answer.
The Beninese authorities released Ropo – the agitator’s wife, while the 48-year-old activist was returned to police custody.
The lawyers had after Thursday’s hearing said that prosecutors claimed Igboho was on a watchlist for alleged trafficking in arms, inciting violence that could result in social disturbance and causing disunity in Nigeria. (Punch)
