Updated: Fire razes Sunday Igboho’s house in Ibadan, police get report

A midnight fire on Tuesday gutted some parts of the house of a popular Yoruba rights activist, Sunday Adeyemo, well known as Sunday Igboho.

The fire reportedly started around 3am in the building located in the Soka area of Ibadan, Oyo State.

The PUNCH reported that the source of the fire was unknown as of the time of filing this report but it was gathered that firefighters from the Oyo State Fire Service arrived at the scene a few hours after to put out the fire.

No statement has been obtained from Igboho on the incident.

Igboho, who is the Akoni Oodua of Yoruba land, last week asked herdsmen in the Ibarapa Local Government Area of Oyo State to leave within seven days.

At the expiration of the ultimatum last week, he and his followers had stormed the Fulani settlement in the ancient town to eject Seriki Fulani, Salihu Abdukadir, and herdsmen accused of perpetrating crime, ranging from kidnappings, killings, rape to invasion of farmlands with their cattle.

Some houses and property in the settlement of the Fulanis were torched but Igboho had distanced himself from the incident, saying aggrieved youths and residents of the town were responsible for the destruction.

Meanwhile, Oyo State Police Command has said it received a report that hoodlums loaded in a bus and taxi came to set ablaze the house of Sunday Igboho.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr Olugbenga Fadeyi, said this in a statement on Tuesday.

Fadeyi also said the police were told that the arsonists shot in the air several times as they put fire to the house located in the Soka area of Ibadan.

He said the police had begun an investigation into the incident.

The police statement read, “At about 0620hrs of today 26/01/2021, a report was received at the Santo Police Station that some unidentified hoodlums came to Sunday Igboho’s house in the Soka area of Ibadan in a Hummer bus and Micra (taxi) firing sporadically, and set the house ablaze.

“The mini sitting room got burnt in the process while the value of other properties is yet to be estimated.

“Immediately the DPO Sanyo got wind of the incident, he contacted fire service while he also went to the scene for on the spot assessment.

“The fire was eventually put out. An investigation has commenced into the incident while the police are on the trail of the hoodlums.”

-The Punch