Kemi Busari
Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka has described as ‘criminal’ the inhuman the act of ‘terrorising’ the public by men of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
He said this shortly after his address at the 10th Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) award ceremony held in Lagos yesterday.
According to him, the Nigerian Armed Forces can be likened to the dreaded Boko Haram sect who takes joy in unleashing terror on the public.
“We all saw the images from the entries tonight. The military has perpetrated unspeakable criminal atrocities on the populace. There was a recent case of a soldier who rode on a motorbike and died from accident. His colleagues at the barracks pour out as customary of them and assaulted the innocent citizens, burnt 9 public vehicles and held up traffic for a long time and meanwhile their dead colleague was riding without an helmet. Inotherwords, they acted like Boko Haram in their terroristic manner.
“Governor Fashola set up a commission to investigate and identify those responsible for this mayhem. The commission has done its work but nothing has been heard as retribution on these criminals. We demand to know the follow up action we are sick and tired of hearing that it has been militarily dealt with. What is that? A crime is committed publicly against the laws of the nation and then we hear that it has been dealt with in secret. That in itself is an insult on the nation and its people.”
Noting that he has no grudge against the military, Soyinka charged President Buhari to cease the unlawful act.
“I don’t consider the military as enemy but the military has some rotten eggs, some killers and some criminals who must be curtailed. I think after the many years of military rule, there should be a permanent end to these forms of assault on the populace of the nation, we want result and we want those results in public.
“I am challenging President Buhari to put an end to this internal warfare which has declared by the military against the populace.”
Soyinka also saved some words for the Nigerian Police for their recurrent act of unlawful detention and flouting of court orders.
The 1986 Literature Nobel Prize winner in his criticism of the Nigerian Police urged them to stop unlawful detention of citizens and respect the court always.
“Let us put an end to unlawful detention. It is either we are running a democracy or we are not. There is nothing called half democracy. If the court grants an individual bail, I don’t care the crime he is accused of but it is wrong to detain unlawfully. It is wrong and a slap on our judiciary that a citizen is granted bail and the police come up with flimsy excuses to go against the court order. This has to stop, examples must be made.”
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