The PUNCH reported that on July 1, 2021, operatives of the DSS carried out a midnight raid on Igboho’s residence, in the Soka area of Ibadan.
The spokesman for the DSS, Peter Afunanya, at a press briefing in Abuja, later confirmed that the secret police carried out the raid after intelligence reports revealed that Igboho stockpiled weapons in his house.
“In the early hours (about 0134 hours) of today, July 1, 2021, a joint team of security operatives raided the residence of Sunday Adeniyi Adeyemo a.k.a. Sunday Igboho at Soka, Ibadan, Oyo State.
“This was based on intelligence that he had stockpiled arms in the place. On approach to the residence, the team came under heavy gun attack by nine men, suspected to be Igboho’s guards. Six of them were armed with AK-47 guns and three others with Pump-Action riffles,” Afunanya had told newsmen.
There were speculations at the time that Igboho turned to a cat to escape arrest during the raid.
However, in an exclusive interview with The PUNCH, speaking on how he escaped being arrested by men of the DSS, Igboho confirmed that some cats were killed during the raid on his apartment, but denied reports that he turned into a cat.
He said, “It is true that some cats were killed during the attack because the DSS just kept firing bullets in all directions. I was rearing cats as pets and I had many of them in my house. So, anything or movement attracted sporadic gunshots.
“Their mission was to either kill me or arrest me and take me to an unknown destination, but the Almighty God is greater than anybody in this world, including the despotic ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.
“My God and providence put Buhari to shame with the lawless invasion of my home because they all failed to achieve what they came for. I didn’t turn into a cat to escape.
Speaking further, he claimed ignorance of reports that the DSS brought along three herbalists for the raid.
“I wouldn’t know that because the DSS stormed my residence at midnight, causing fear and commotion in the whole Soka area of Ibadan, releasing a volley of bullets for several hours.
“In that atmosphere of confusion and violence, how do you expect me to be checking if they came with herbalists or pastors? There couldn’t have been time for that”, he said.
On the DSS’ allegation that he stockpiled guns in his house, Igboho noted that they were mere fabrications concocted by the DSS to implicate him.
“That’s very far from the truth. How can I stockpile guns in my house? All those allegations are phantom and cooked up by the DSS just to implicate me for a planned or trumped-up criminal trial”, the Yoruba Nation agitator said.