The Yoruba Self-Determination Movement (YSDM) has renewed its call for the unconditional freedom of Yoruba activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, while restating its commitment to achieving a sovereign Yoruba nation and safeguarding Lagos as an integral part of Yorubaland.
Speaking at a world press conference in Ibadan on Friday, August 14, 2025, Deputy Leader (Homeland), Arc. Opeoluwa G. Akinola, described Igboho’s continued restriction as unjust and politically motivated. He urged the Federal Government to unfreeze the activist’s bank accounts, release his assets, and remove his name from the wanted list, noting that “foreign Fulani elements” committing crimes in Yorubaland still move freely.
Akinola condemned what he called a calculated political plot to undermine Yoruba heritage in Lagos State, alleging that certain Igbo political actors attempted to hijack the state’s political structure after the Labour Party’s presidential victory in Lagos during the 2023 general elections.
According to him, the decisive victory of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in the 2023 gubernatorial election was a united Yoruba effort to block “foreign domination,” which he said would have been disastrous if the Labour Party had succeeded in taking the state.
He commended the Lagos State House of Assembly, led by Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, for its recent pro-indigene legislative agenda, including translating laws into Yoruba, reversing policies harmful to native interests, and introducing measures to protect indigenous rights in commerce, property, and governance.
The YSDM leader supported proposals to cap non-indigenous market control at 40%, criminalise the harassment of Yoruba traders in markets, and limit land leasehold for non-indigenes to 20 years. He argued that similar restrictions exist in other countries, adding that “what is good for the goose is good for the gander.”
Akinola also criticised the sale of over 5,000 hectares of prime land in the Lekki area to Zenco Properties, owned by an Anambra businessman, warning traditional rulers and land-owning families against “selling away the inheritance of future generations.”
He described as “provocative” the planned hosting of a major Igbo cultural event in Lagos in October, urging organisers to take such celebrations to the South-East. He warned that Yoruba people view such activities as subtle attempts to lay cultural and political claims to Lagos.
The YSDM emphasised that while it may support policies that align with Yoruba interests, it does not endorse the Tinubu-led Federal Government or Nigeria’s current constitutional structure, which it described as “fraudulent and unworkable.”
Reaffirming the movement’s ultimate goal, Akinola declared: “What we desire is a free and unfettered Yoruba Nation, free from the encumbrances, shackles, endemic corruption and bankruptcy of the Nigerian state.”
