The Raid On Sunday Igboho’s House Was Bizzare – Wole Soyinka

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has come out to say that it is not illegal for people to express intention to leave any federation.

He recently revealed this after the raid on Sunday Igboho’s house days ago, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, the midnight raid by the Department of State Services on the Ibadan house of Yoruba activist Sunday Adeyemo was very bizarre and the activist actually deserves an apology for the act.

Soyinka added that FG saying Igboho was planning war against the state is deliberately meant to conflict issues.

His words, “More important for me is the position of the government, saying that the ‘existence of these weapons’ proved that he (Igboho) 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, (Ex-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 for 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 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.”

“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.”

“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’.”