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.

The DSS invaded Igboho’s house in Ibadan, Oyo State, early on Thursday based on intelligence it said it had received that he was stockpiling arms to cause chaos within the region.

Igboho, who has been declared wanted by the DSS, had recently been calling for a ‘Yoruba Nation’ over what he has described as a ‘Fulani invasion’ of the South-West.

In an interview with BBC Pidgin published on Monday, Soyinka 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.

https://www.channelstv.com/2021/07/05/fg-should-apologise-to-igboho-stop-pursuing-him-as-a-criminal-wole-soyinka/

Why was the other thread closed?

Igboho and Kanu are two different people. Igboho wasn't arrested.

Criminal Old fool..
This guy created cultism in Nigeria. cultism is destroying 89% of the youth in south, hope he is happy now. He takes dangerous substances talk gibberish and people think he makes sense.

Madman

True talk.

Ok

Which fg will apologize

KillMNKnow:
What

water ode

One thing is sure Buhari must achieve his aim of arresting igboho, but before then igboho should sue fg first if I were him

If Nigeria is a sane country, Igboho would sue the FG and win them in court.

He can relocate to an EU country or the USA to sue their dirty ass.

Nigerians are too forgetful, buhari is doing the bidden of miyeti Allah, it was miyatialla that demanded the arrest Of KANU and igboho at all cost and I was done

This man soyonka should keep quiet ...

That the protest went ahead has already sent a message across to whoever cares to pay attention that the resolve to break away from Nigeria is as strong as a steel.

KillMNKnow:
Criminal Old fool..
This guy created cultism in Nigeria. cultism is destroying 89% of the youth in south, hope he is happy now. He takes danger substances talk gibberish and people think he makes sense.

Madman

I almost developed brain aneurysm reading this post.

Almajiri schools must be abolished because you Fulani cows are the worst set of illiterates I've ever encountered in my existence. You, QuotaSystem and all the rest of the Fulani cattle contingent need urgent brain surgery to extract the cow urine your brains are saturated with. Y'all are irredeemable tadpoles and a nuisance.

RenaissanceGuy:
That the protest went ahead has already sent a message across to whoever cares to pay attention that the resolve to break away from Nigeria is as strong as a steel.

Prof. Wole Soyinka speaking out publicly on BBC is a good omen and a media coup for the agitation. The way he worded everything he said shows he's fully in support covertly. And since he's the most influential Yoruba person alive and the most popular internationally, it's a big boost.

Needed interview.

DubaiLandLord:
If Nigeria is a sane country, Igboho would sue the FG and win them in court.

He can relocate to an EU country or the USA to sue their dirty ass.

He'll sue and win.

Ruggedniggaone:
water ode

[s]

KillMNKnow:
Criminal Old fool..
This guy created cultism in Nigeria. cultism is destroying 89% of the youth in south, hope he is happy now. He takes dangerous substances talk gibberish and people think he makes sense.

Madman

[/s]
Cry us a River Nile, pained Fulani terrorist and mannequin rapist.

This version is much more explicit

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, says it is not criminal or illegal for anyone to express intention 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, it 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.

Soyinka subsequently gave examples of people who left a federation or a union to form or join another state including the Bakassi people of Southern Nigeria who seceded to Cameroon.

He also condemned as “bizarre”, the midnight raid by the Department of State Services on the Ibadan house of Yoruba activist Sunday Adeyemo also known as Sunday Igboho, last Thursday.

Soyinka, who spoke during an interview with BBC News Pidgin on Monday monitored by The PUNCH, urged the government to apologise to Igboho.

The PUNCH had earlier reported that the DSS on Thursday paraded 13 of Igboho’s guards and close associates in Abuja. The DSS also said it killed two of his associates in a gun duel.

Though Igboho had escaped the raid, his house and cars were riddled with bullets while bloodstains splattered over the floors of the house.

The secret police had since declared Igboho wanted. The activist is being accused of stockpiling weapons to destabilise the country under the guise of agitation for Yoruba nation but he has since denied the allegation, saying he protects himself with charms and not weapons.

Commenting on Monday, Soyinka said, “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.”

Soyinka faulted the Federal Government for also not describing AK-47-wielding herdsmen as terrorists 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.

https://punchng.com/stop-pursuing-igboho-apologise-to-him-soyinka-tells-fg/

APC Fulani cows masquareding as Yoruba are running from the thread.

The most influential Yoruba alive, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has spoken.

KillMNKnow:
Criminal Old fool..
This guy created cultism in Nigeria. cultism is destroying 89% of the youth in south, hope he is happy now. He takes dangerous substances talk gibberish and people think he makes sense.

Madman

Yet he and his "cultists" are all personalities with distinction


He even won a Nobel

I pity your life because you are bringing curse on your head.

KillMNKnow:
Criminal Old fool..
This guy created cultism in Nigeria. cultism is destroying 89% of the youth in south, hope he is happy now. He takes dangerous substances talk gibberish and people think he makes sense.

Madman

KillMNKnow:
Criminal Old fool..
This guy created cultism in Nigeria. cultism is destroying 89% of the youth in south, hope he is happy now. He takes dangerous substances talk gibberish and people think he makes sense.

Madman

You are pained these days. You keep on littering all posts on nairaland with trash. If not that southern person is the owner of nairaland and proponents of free speech unlike the mannequins hating northern sections, you won't be able to say this.

KillMNKnow:
Criminal Old fool..
This guy created cultism in Nigeria. cultism is destroying 89% of the youth in south, hope he is happy now. He takes dangerous substances talk gibberish and people think he makes sense.

Madman

You left the message to attack the messenger. You re the one not making sense.