The Bola Tinubu-led federal government has said the petition by Yoruba nation agitator, Mr Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as “Sunday Igboho”, calling on the United Kingdom to consider the Yoruba nation was not endorsed by the UK government and inconsequential.
The content of the petition is not known, but Igboho is believed to have sought the support of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the establishment of the Yoruba Nation.
The spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Eche Abu-Obe, in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, said media reports on the petition “were highly misleading.”
The statement reads, “Furthermore, the High Commissioner informed he was aware of the letter being delivered but added that it was merely an established practice of allowing the delivery of letters and petitions to No 10.”
“It was not endorsed by any Agency of the UK government or the UK Parliamentary Petitions Committee.
“The High Commissioner noted that the UK government typically does not concern itself with petitions concerning the sovereign affairs of another country.
“He informed that such petitions had been rejected by the UK Parliamentary Petitions Committee and the UK Government in the past.
“In this regard, he agreed to continue liaising with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as needed, while reiterating the importance of the bilateral relations between the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Recall Igboho, according to his spokesman, Olayomi Koiki, in a post on Sunday via his X handle submitted a petition to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, to consider the creation of a Yoruba nation.
He stated that Igboho submitted the petition on behalf of the leader of the Yoruba Nation movement, Prof. Adebanji Akintoye.
