Reports have revealed that Nigeria former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, travelled to Benin Republic over the detention of Yoruba activist, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho.
Obasanjo, also a former head of state, reportedly travelled to the neighbouring West African country in the first week of August.
Top sources in the country disclosed that Obasanjo travelled to Zanzibar, an island in Tanzanian, on August 1, 2021, before moving to Benin Republic.
Further reports suggested that the former President travelled to the Benin Republic in the guise of condoling with Nicephore Soglo who recently lost his wife, Roseline Soglo. Roseline died on July 25 at the age of 87 in Cotonou.
Soglo was president of the Benin Republic from 1991 to 1996.
It was also learnt that that the former Beninese president and Obasanjo have maintained a warm relationship over the years.
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Soglo is one of the African leaders who intervened at the time the Abacha regime arrested and jailed Obasanjo in 1995.
A source was quoted to have said:
Former President Obasanjo travelled to Zanzibar on August 1. Perhaps to conceal his trip; he rerouted to the Benin Republic.
He was to condole with former President Soglo who recently lost his wife.
Another source who was also privy to Obasanjo’s trip said:
He also met with Patrice Talon. The purpose of the meeting was to seek soft-landing for Sunday Igboho.
He’s asking the Beninese authorities to grant the separatist leader asylum, and not to return him to Nigeria.
The former president intervened at the request of some southwest leaders.
Obasanjo’s trip comes shortly after Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, disclosed that Southwest leaders are working behind the scene to ensure the release of Igboho.
Also, Yoruba-speaking traditional leaders in the Francophone country have been mounting pressure on the country’s President, Patrice Talon, to release the Yoruba Nation agitator.
In a letter written to the Beninese President, the traditional leaders told Talon not to allow Nigeria to use the country to score cheap political point.