Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka has asked the Federal Government to apologise to Sunday Igboho after officials of the Department of State Services invaded his home and killed two of his associates.
Igboho’s
house in Ibadan, Oyo State, was invaded by the DSS early on Thursday based on
intelligence it said it had received that he was stockpiling arms to cause
chaos within the region.
Igboho, had
recently been calling for a ‘Yoruba Nation’ over what he has described as a
‘Fulani invasion’ of the South-West and has been declared wanted by the DSS,
Soyinka, In
an interview with BBC Pidgin published on Monday, said the government’s actions
and rationale for invading Igboho’s home “stinks.”
“My advise 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 said.
“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.”
According to
Soyinka, Igboho’s fight for freedom was preceded by criminal acts of enemies of
Nigeria who “appear to be supported by the force of the State.”
While Soyinka
noted he doesn’t ‘like the sound of a Yoruba Nation’ anymore than he likes the
sound of a Tiv or Igbo nation, he said the country must be restructured through
the decentralisation of power.
According to
the erudite professor, Nigeria’s current structure was imposed upon the people
by the military.
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