Soyinka to Tinubu: Reopen Unresolved Extra-judicial Killings, Assassination Cases Nationwide

Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to fulfil his 2023 campaign promise by revisiting unresolved cases of assassinations and extrajudicial killings across the country.

Soyinka made the appeal on Friday at the 28th Wole Soyinka Lecture Series organised by the National Association of Seadogs in Port Harcourt, Rivers.

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 renowned playwright also demanded justice for victims of unresolved killings, including Deborah Samuel, who was lynched by fellow students in Sokoto State in 2022 after being accused of blasphemy, and Mene Ogidi, a 28-year-old man allegedly shot dead by a police officer in Delta State.

Soyinka condemned what he described as selective justice, accusing both the judiciary and citizens of failing to consistently challenge injustice.

According to him, perpetrators of crimes should be identified and prosecuted irrespective of their status or location.

He said the lecture served as a reminder of the many unresolved injustices in the country and honoured victims of state failures, including the six police officers killed in Apo, Abuja.

The Nobel laureate expressed concern that one of Deborah Samuel’s alleged killers reportedly displayed the matchstick used to set her ablaze publicly without facing justice years after the incident.

He contrasted that with the swift arrest of the police officer accused of killing Mene Ogidi, saying the differing responses reflected selective justice.

“That is why my remark is to remind you of that, that actually through me, paying honour to those 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 said.

Soyinka further described Deborah Samuel’s killing as one of the tragedies that should continue to challenge the nation’s conscience.

“It’s dedicated to individuals, the youths, like Deborah, who was killed, who was butchered by her own classmates, 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 said.

Soyinka urged Nigerians to demand accountability and called on President Tinubu to reopen investigations into unresolved killings.

“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,’” Soyinka said.