Nnamdi Kanu Was ‘Kidnapped’ And Pursuit Of Igboho is ‘Illegal’ – Soyinka

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has slammed the Federal Government of Nigeria over the ‘kidnap’ of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu and the ‘illegal’ pursuit of Sunday Adeyemo popularly known as Sunday Igboho.

Gatekeepers News reports that Soyinka on Monday shared his opinion about the two men who are in the news recently.

Kanu who is facing an 11-count charge of treason, treasonable felony, terrorism and illegal possession of firearms, among others, jumped bail in 2017 and fled the country. He was re-arraigned before a Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday and ordered to be remanded in the custody of the DSS shortly after he was re-arrested by the Nigerian Government and extradited to the country.

Soyinka, in his reaction, stated that there will be a ‘huge squawk’ when the truth about Kanu’s arrest is out, he added “but I think Kanu was kidnapped.”

“It’s not for me to tell the president to prepare itself because it’s going to be a huge squawk when the truth about how Kanu was arrested comes out. People are alleging this or that. That is one phase of whether Nigeria has acted outside international law.

“The second issue, however, has to do with Kanu’s conduct outside the nation. There’s been a level of hate rhetoric which has been unfortunate, from Kanu. Hate rhetoric is an issue that can only be judged by the laws of any nation.

“Was it right ‘to have been kidnapped?’ You can say intercepted as much as you want but I think Kanu was kidnapped. That is wrong internationally and morally.

“The government can not wash itself clean on what seems to be a kind of comparative energy in pursuing the destabilised forces in the nation.

“If we take ourselves back, once when I threw a challenge to Buhari, what I expect from a true leader is to issue an order, give a deadline that any illegal occupant of any villages, farms is given 48hours to quit after which the mighty forces of the nation will be unleashed on them. It was ignored.

“Years later, he came to say ‘we will respond to these people in the language they understand’. This is what I expected him to have said years ago, at the beginning of the insurgency.

“Their leadership–the Miyetti Allah — should have been arrested years ago, long before IPOB was declared a terrorist organisation,” he said in an interview with BBC News Pidgin.

On Igboho’s who has been agitating for Yoruba nation, Gatekeepers News had reported that the Department of State Services (DSS) raided his house and his cars were sprayed with bullets while bloodstains splattered over the floors of the house.

On Thursday, the DSS paraded 13 of Igboho’s guards and close associates in Abuja and also said it killed two of his associates in a gun duel.

On the controversy, Soyinka stressed that it is not criminal or illegal for anyone to declare his/her intention to leave any federation.

He condemned the Nigerian Government for placing a call for separation as criminal.

“How can you place the will for separation as a criminal act? Soyinka queried, adding that “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.”

Nobel Laureate subsequently cited examples of people who departed a federation or a union to form or join another state including the Bakassi people of Southern Nigeria who seceded to Cameroon.

Soyinka also lends his voice to condemn the attack on Igboho’s residence describing it as “bizarre”.