Igboho: I Never Turned Into Cat During DSS Raid

Yoruba Nation agitator, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, has dismissed claims that he transformed into a cat to escape arrest during the 2021 raid on his Ibadan residence by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).

Speaking while hosting a delegation of Muslim clerics at his residence in Ibadan, Igboho said he remained hidden inside the house throughout the operation and watched as security operatives searched unsuccessfully for him.

According to him, the DSS team arrived at about 1:30 a.m., opened fire after hearing his voice, and later used explosives to gain entry into the building.

“I was naked at the time, but I quickly wore a pair of jeans and a shirt. Part of me wanted to surrender, while another part warned me not to because I believed I would be killed,” he said.

Igboho alleged that operatives continued shooting despite not seeing him and forced his personal assistant to call on him to surrender, a move he said made him suspicious.

Rejecting rumours that he escaped by turning into a cat, he said the operatives killed a cat after mistaking it for him.

“I did not turn into a cat. They killed a cat because they thought it was me. They even brought someone I considered a fake herbalist to perform rituals and chant incantations in an attempt to locate me. I was watching everything from inside the house, but they never found me,” he said.

He also claimed that a partially blind relative was shot after being mistaken for an attacker and alleged that security operatives took away the bodies of those killed during the operation.

The DSS raided Igboho’s residence in the Soka area of Ibadan on July 1, 2021, after months of tension over his campaign for an independent Yoruba Nation.

Following the operation, the DSS said it recovered firearms and ammunition from the residence, arrested 13 of his associates, and that two of his aides were killed in what it described as an exchange of gunfire.

Igboho later fled Nigeria but was arrested in Cotonou, Benin Republic, while attempting to travel to Germany.

He was subsequently released by Beninese authorities after months of legal proceedings.