Yoruba secessionist Sunday Igboho said he was at home when the operatives of the State Security Service collaborated with the Nigerian Army in an early morning attack on his Ibadan residence.
Witnesses said the men, dressed in Nigerian military uniform attacked the house located in Soka area of Ibadan at about 1:30 a.m. on Thursday, destroyed valuable assets in the building, killed two, and took the bodies away.
Footage from the incident also contained blood spills in the activist’s living room and vehicles destroyed.
A commentator in a live video of the incident said the men stormed the residence with five patrol vans, Hilux, and private vehicles and passed through Iwo road from Soka after the attack.
Confirming the attack to BBC, Mr Igboho said he was indoor at the time of the incident and heard the men saying that they were officials of the SSS and Nigerian Army.
“Around 1:30 a.m., I just heard gunshots in front of my house. ‘Sunday Igboho come out, we are DSS, we are soldiers,” the activist said.
“I stood close to the window, I saw them in DSS uniform and soldiers in the Nigerian Army. So, I was surprised.
“I did not kill or fight with anybody,” he said while explaining that “what I’m doing is to fight for my people. I am fighting for my people because the Fulani bandits killed my family, kidnap and take ransom from them.
“Government refused to do the right thing for my family and that’s why I come out to support and fight for our rights. So, I was surprised,” he added.
He further confirmed that his properties were destroyed and two men were killed during the attack.
It is however not clear how the security forces failed to see or arrest him.
When contacted by The Gazette, the spokesperson for the Nigerian Army, Onyema Nwachukwu said he was unaware of the incident.
“There’s nothing like that, I don’t have that information. Soldiers did not carry out an attack on Igboho,” Mr Nwachukwu said over the telephone.
Also, the spokesperson for SSS Peter Afunanya ignored The Gazette’s request seeking his comments on the allegation.
Oluyomi Koiki, a spokesperson for Mr Igboho in a Facebook post stated that “When they arrived into the premises, they forced the gate open and there was a conversation between someone on the phone with the group of people that were on the ground and the message from the person relaying the information was that everybody should be killed right in the building.
Mr Koiki further said that some of the scores whisked away by the armed men were dropped off at Akure by the DSS.
According to him, the soldiers were also dropped off at Iwo Road.
The attack on Mr Igboho’s residence came two days before a major rally of separatist agitators scheduled to hold in Lagos on Saturday.
Source; people’s gazette