Sunday Igboho
Presidential aide, Garba Shehu has defended the killing of Yoruba activist, Sunday Igboho’s relatives by the Department of State Service.
According to Gazette Nigeria, Shehu said Igboho’s relatives were killed in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s shoot-on-sight order.
On Thursday, the SSS stormed the home of Mr Igboho, an agitator for the realisation of a sovereign Yoruba nation, killing two of his relatives.
Garba Shehu, Mr Buhari’s media aide, in a Tuesday statement, said, “Mr President’s directives to security services regarding anyone seen to be carrying arms, particularly AK-47, are clear and require no further illumination.
“Assault weapons are not tools of peace-loving people, and as such, regardless of who they are and where they are from, the Security Agencies should treat them all the same.”
Mr Buhari had in March directed the military to shoot anyone with sophisticated weapons like AK-47, a directive he gave to clamp down on bandits terrorising various parts of the country.
However, activists and lawyers faulted the directive, saying Nigeria is not a jungle where security operatives shoot anyone with arms.
During a one-day visit to Lagos in June, Mr Buhari restated that his shoot on sight directives remained in place, warning that his regime will act decisively and firmly against those attacking the country’s security facilities.
In January, Peoples Gazette reported how Mr Buhari endorsed lethal force against Sunday Igboho and his supporters.
A police chief told The Gazette that Mr Buhari asked Igboho and his followers to be shot on sight if they continued to “disturb public peace” in Oyo and attempt to drag Nigeria into a civil war.
The SSS said it attacked the Yoruba separatist leader’s Ibadan residence and killed two people because Mr Igboho was planning a “violent insurrection against Nigeria.”
“In the course of the exchange, two of Igboho’s armed men were gunned down while the rest were subdued and arrested. Only one DSS operative, who was shot by the assailants on his right hand, sustained injury. He has, however, received medical attention and is very stable,” said the security agency.
