Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, says there will be a “huge squawk” if the truth about how the Federal Government arrested the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, is revealed.
Soyinka stated this in an interview with BBC Pidgin.
He urged the Federal Government to demonstrate genuine readiness to arrest bandits and terrorists.
The Nobel laureate said, “It’s not for me to tell the president to prepare himself 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, 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 cannot wash 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.”
Kanu, who is facing an 11-count charge of treason, treasonable felony, terrorism and illegal possession of firearms, among others, jumped bail in 2017, running away from the country.
He disappeared in 2017 after he was released on bail, only to re-emerge in Israel and then in the United Kingdom.
On Tuesday last week, he was re-arraigned before a Federal High Court in Abuja, which ordered that he be remanded in DSS custody and adjourned the case till July 26 and July 27.
Federal Government said Kanu was trailed for over two years by intelligence agents before his re-arrested, adding that the IPOB leader was detained again on Sunday, but did not give details about the location of his arrest.
Kanu was initially arrested in late 2015 after calling for a separate state for Biafra in the South-East.
His detention instigated his supporters who embarked on mass protests and clashed with security agents.
Suspected members of IPOB have also burnt down INEC offices and police stations in the South-East. The group has, however, consistently denied having a hand in the violence.