Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has encouraged President Bola Tinubu to follow through on his vow to revisit unsolved cases of assassination and extrajudicial executions across the country in 2023.
Soyinka made the appeal on Friday at the 28th Wole Soyinka Lecture Series organised by the National Association of Seadogs (Pirates Confraternity) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The lecture, themed ‘Reclaiming the Nigerian State through Accountability, Justice and Civic Courage’, was chaired by former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Chief Timi Alaibe.
The award-winning playwright also demanded justice for victims of unresolved killings, including Deborah Samuel, who was murdered by her classmates in Sokoto State in 2022 after being accused of blasphemy, and 28-year-old Mene Ogidi, who was allegedly shot dead by a policeman in Delta State.
Soyinka criticised selective justice and the failure of the judiciary and citizens to address injustice.
He emphasised the importance of identifying and punishing perpetrators of crimes, regardless of their status or location.
The lecture series serves as a reminder of the country’s injustices and a tribute to victims of state failures, including the six police officers killed in Apo, Abuja.
Soyinka expressed concern that one of Deborah’s classmates allegedly displayed the matchstick used to set her ablaze but had not faced justice years later.
He compared the swift arrest of the policeman accused of killing Ogidi to the handling of Deborah’s case, describing the situation as selective justice.
He said, “That is why my remark is to remind you of that, that actually through me, paying honour to those who have been, who’ve lost their lives as a result of these deficiencies in the state and also the criminal participation, even indirect, of ours, the complicity in the decimation and the devaluation of our humanity.
“I don’t want us to lose that sense that this session is dedicated to the martyrs, to those who have needlessly and avoidably lost their lives, whom we all admit the life of a human being constitutes the basic unit of any community, any structure, any system of governance.”
He also stated that the lecture was dedicated to victims of various injustices, including the six policemen killed in Apo and youths allegedly killed by security agencies.
Soyinka said, “It’s dedicated to individuals, the youths, like Deborah, who was killed, who was butchered by her own classmate, hunted through the city, necklaced and set on fire. But that is not the crime. That really is not the crime.
“The crime is the silence of the rest of us, that such a thing is possible, and that the killers of that girl can actually go on television, hold up a match, and say this is the match with which I set her on fire.”
He urged Nigerians to demand justice and ensure that alleged perpetrators of extra-judicial killings do not escape punishment.
“Watch with me so that we can force the government to bring up all the files. When there was a government retreat, you remember? The incoming president said, I want all the files of all the unsolved assassinations, killings, extra-judicial killings.
“What has happened to those files? I want you to join me in asking President Tinubu to say, we want you to dig up those files. We want to know what happened, why it happened,” he said.
