…says govt should apologise to him
Prof. Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in literature, has berated the Federal Government over its attacks on and subsequent hunt for Sunday Igboho, the prime leader in the agitation for Yoruba Nation.
Speaking on Monday in an interview on BBC News Pidgin programme, the acclaimed playwright said there was nothing criminal or illegal for anyone to someone to leave any federation.
“How can you place the will for separation as a criminal act? That kind of language doesn’t exist in the Constitution, he doesn’t exist in law. It does not exist in the catalogue of immoralities because it is not an immoral act or position to say that you want to stop being part of an entity or you want to join an entity,” he said.
He asked the government to apologise to Igboho, who has gone underground after he was declared wanted by the Department of State Services on Thursday.
DSS declared him wanted after a raid on his Ibadan, Oyo State residence, in the early hours of Thursday, during which they arrested 13 people said to be Igboho’s aides.
According to Soyinka, the raid was a “bizarre” adventure by the agency.
Soyinka said there were examples of people who had opted out of federations or unions to go their way or join other people, examples of which include the Bakassi people of Southern Nigeria who seceded to Cameroon.
The Spy Police had said that its officials killed two of Igboho’s associates in a gun batttle with the secret police. The two men were later identified as Adogan and Alfa.
Though Igboho had escaped the raid, his house and cars were riddled with bullets while bloodstains splattered over the floors of the house.
Igboho is accused of stockpiling weapons to destabilise the country under the guise of agitation for Yoruba nation but he has since denied the allegation.
Similarly, Soyinka dismissed such an allegation. According to him, the ‘existence of these weapons’ proved that he was planning war against the state. That position, very loaded statement, was simply deliberate to conflict issues. It was to obscure the fact that Igboho and other people, myself included, have been decrying the loss of lives of law-abiding citizens, farmers especially all over the nation. Not just civilians, (Minister of Defense, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.), told the people, ‘Don’t trust the military anymore, defend yourself’. Some other voices like governors have made similar statements.
“Now, Igboho, even if he had those weapons, he is claiming that his mission is to liberate his people from the tyranny of squatters, who now become violent overlords, and he has a good cause in that sense. Testimonies of farmers who have been brutalised, dehumanised by these squatters, who have acknowledged and identified themselves as Fulani, over decades of this anomalous kind of situation in which the people did not receive the necessary, mandatory and entitled defence and protection by the security forces, in which sometimes, it is the victims who’ve been jailed, the recent case in Ibarapa from instance, is a personal testimony of those who were arrested and detained by the police simply for going to challenge those who were terrorising and raping their women.
“So now, you have a situation where the government who is saying the ‘existence of these weapons’ means that Igboho is planning an armed insurrection against the state. The whole thing from beginning to the end just stinks: the raid, the motivation has become very implausible.”
Soyinka also faulted the government for its failure to describe and treat as terrorists AK-47-wielding herdsmen, who are waging a violent insurrection against the Nigerian state.
“My advice to the government is that they should stop pursuing Igboho as a criminal because you have begun by acting in a criminal fashion against him,” he stated.
“If and when Igboho comes to trial, I guarantee you the government will be very embarrassed.
“I think they should tell Igboho ‘we made a mistake’, ‘we should not have acted in this way’, ‘you are no longer wanted’, ‘go back to your home, in fact, escort him to his home and let him resume his normal life,” the Nobel Laureate added.
Meanwhile, the group behind the Yoruba Nation agitation, The Ilana Omo Oodua is in the process of assembling a team of senior Yoruba lawyers to ensure the release of Igboho’s aides who were arrested during the raid on his residence.
The Communication Secretary of the Ilana Omo Oodua, Mr Maxwell Adeleye, told The Punch that the group which is being led by a renowned historian, Prof Banji Akintoye, would not abandon Igboho and others.
Adeleye said the group would make sure that those arrested during the Yoruba Nation rally held in Lagos on Saturday were released.
He said Igboho’s aides did not commit any crime just like the protesters also did not violate any law by their actions.
Adeleye said, “The counsel for Igboho, Chief Yomi Aliu (SAN), has written the DSS, Inspector General of Police.
“Igboho is a law abiding person and he has not violated any law. None of his family member was attacked by herdsmen but his love for his people made him to rise up to speak for Yoruba people who are being oppressed in their land. He never killed anyone, but he is being hunted while tknown criminals are being pampered.
